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McMurdo Dry Valleys (Taylor/Wright valleys)

Unreviewed draft

This page was built from a teammate-supplied list. The text is teammate-written, unreviewed. Sources pending.

Summary

not provided

Location

Country
Antarctica
Coordinates
-77.62, 162.90
Elevation (m)
300
Year first used as an analog
not provided

Terrain and geology

not provided

Climate

not provided

Parameters matched

not provided

Why it is an analog

Coldest, driest ice-free ground on Earth; key cold-trap stand-in.

Key differences: where the analogy breaks down

Sun climbs to ~36° in summer (lunar pole <2°); lakes and glaciers; air.

Experiments done

Cold-desert soil and ice studies; rover and drill tests; polar-ops and isolation research by NASA and NSF teams.

Experiments proposed

Cold-trap ice prospecting with neutron spectrometers; extreme-cold battery/thermal tests; polar-night operations; rover autonomy in low sun.

How to adjust it

Insulated shadow enclosures to approach cold-trap temps; simulant patches for regolith mechanics.

Access

not provided

Hazards

not provided

Sources

Sources pending (no sources in CSV).

v1 score, percentile and overlap flag

A descriptive lookup of scores v1 already stored. It is not a test, and a high percentile here does not show that this is a good analog.

v1 used this site
Unknown. The nearest v1 site, "mcmurdo dry valleys", is about 25.4 km away, and the files cannot say whether v1 meant the same place.

Stored v1 scores near McMurdo Dry Valleys (Taylor/Wright valleys)
Score viewResultPercentileScoreDistance to tile (km)Overlap flag
Connecting Ridge C1, BaseNo land tileno land tile within the match radiusnot providednot providednot providednot provided
Connecting Ridge C1, Landing and mobilityNo land tileno land tile within the match radiusnot providednot providednot providednot provided
Connecting Ridge C1, Power and nightNo land tileno land tile within the match radiusnot providednot providednot providednot provided
Shackleton rim, BaseNo land tileno land tile within the match radiusnot providednot providednot providednot provided
Shackleton rim, Landing and mobilityNo land tileno land tile within the match radiusnot providednot providednot providednot provided
Shackleton rim, Power and nightNo land tileno land tile within the match radiusnot providednot providednot providednot provided

Overlap flag: whether the tile used for the score is one v1 flagged as stable in its top group across the Monte Carlo runs.

What these scores can and cannot tell you
  • This is a lookup of scores v1 already stored. It is descriptive and is not a test of the method.
  • A site is matched to the best-scoring tile that passed the gates within the match radius. A different radius would give different numbers.
  • Tiles are large compared with most sites, so a score describes the surrounding area, not the site itself.
  • Scores exist only for tiles that passed the land-cover and data gates. A gated-out or unscored site has no score, which says nothing about how good an analog it is.
  • Percentile is the share of scored tiles in that view with a lower score.
  • The Moon score is effectively terrain only. Mars is a low-confidence secondary result.
  • v1 failed its negative controls, so a high percentile here does not show that a site is a good analog.
  • The ranking is not checked against independent data. Gravity, air, dust and radiation are not scored.
  • Sites are compared with views of their own body only.
  • Match radius: 20 km, the radius v1 used.