The Soviet Venus Quest: First Color Photos From a Blazing World
TL;DR
The Soviet Union led nearly 30 Venus missions (Venera and Vega) from 1961–1984, becoming the only nation to land on Venus and transmit color surface photos before the extreme heat and pressure ended the probes; Venera 14 (1982) delivered iconic panoramic images, while Vega 2 (1984–85) deployed a balloon for atmospheric data, including a famous lens-cap mishap; future Venus missions (Venera-D) are discussed but uncertain due to funding.
Topics:sciencetechnology#space-exploration-history#technology#vega-program#venera-14#venera-program#venus-missions
- The Soviet Union launched nearly 30 spacecraft at Venus and became the only nation ever to land on its surface and send back pictures — color photographs of a scorched volcanic plain under a yellow-green sky, shot in the few dozen minutes before the heat 19FortyFive
- Soviet spacecraft built to land on Venus in 1972 spent 53 years orbiting Earth and finally returned without burning up The Times of India
- When the Soviet Venera 13 probe touched down on Venus in March 1982, it survived for 127 minutes in a 465-degree atmosphere that crushed it with the pressure of nearly a kilometre of ocean water, and in that time it scraped a soil sample, analysed it, and tr Space Daily
- Everyone is fixated on Mars, but 30 miles above the hellish surface of Venus there is a layer of sky where the pressure matches Earth's and the temperature sits at room temperature — and NASA has a real concept to float crewed airships there, a mission that 19FortyFive
- The Soviet spacecraft landed on Venus and measured its own cover instead of the planet's surface UA.NEWS
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