HEINLEIN CRATER IN MARS

Heinlein Crater

Although there is no lunar feature named explicitly for Heinlein, this lack was rectified in 1994 when a major crater on Mars was named for him.

This image shows a complete mosaic of Mars assembled from Viking images. The center of the mosaic is the zero meridian; the split is at 180 degrees.The region of Heinlein crater is marked at lower right.

This image shows a mosaic of part of Mars' southern hemisphere, assembled from Viking images. The image is necessarily distorted.

The bottom center point of the mosaic is at Mars' south pole (90 degrees south); the top edge is at 42.5 degrees south. The two extreme longitudes are 180 degrees and 270 degrees; the center longitude is 225 degrees west.

Heinlein crater is the lowermost member of the large pair marked, at 64.6 degrees south, 243.8 degrees west, and is 83 km in diameter.

This image shows a closeup of Heinlein crater (the lower of the pair). The large adjoining crater is Weinbaum crater, named after science fiction writer Stanley G. Weinbaum.

Other craters in the immediate region, visible in the southern hemisphere mosaic, include ones named for (Thomas) Huxley, (H.G.) Wells, (J.B.S.) Haldane and (Edgar Rice) Burroughs. All of these names are permanent and official, sanctioned by the IAU. Whether or not they're sanctioned by the Martians is yet to be seen.