Venera

From Slackerpedia Galactica

 "USSR Technician: The probe appears to be submerged in black viscous liquid.
  Another Technician: Yes, we are in deep shit."

-Conversation during "landing" of a Venera probe

One of the first attempts by any space agency to effectively explore another planet, the USSR launched a series of probes dubbed "Venera", which unless you're really bad at English is the Russian word for Venus. While the U.S. space agency NASA could claim its exploratory prominence over Mercury with the Mariner program and Mars with the Viking landers, the USSR would maintain its claim to have thoroughly explored the most Earth-like planet in the solar system, in terms of size and distance but definitely not atmosphere. It was not until the 1990's that the NASA-dispatched Magellan probe was Venus so thoroughly explored again.

Program Overview

Initially, sending probes to Venus in the late 60's was accomplished by the same 3-step method that both the US and USSR had both sent them to the Moon in the early 60's.

1. Launch probe on top of refitted ICBM and hope it doesn't blow up on the launchpad.

2. Send probe smack-dab into surface at hundreds of miles an hour.

3. Hope the probe sent back data in the few minutes between meeting atmosphere and meeting surface.

After 9 failed attempts over 5 years, Venera 3 finally earned the Razzie-like distinction of being the first manmade object to smack into another planet in 1965. Another 2 attempts at Venera 4 later^^, Venera 4 gained the somewhat better distinction of actually transmitting data before smacking into the Venusian surface in 1967. The program improved with a pair of atmospheric probes and Venera 7 which had the twin honors of both landing softly on a planet (someone finally invented legs) and transmitting data from there three years later. This advance was overshadowed however, by the Apollo missions which were happening at the same time.

The frustrating puzzle of dealing with Venus' excruciating atmospheric hostility (Too many adjectives, huh?) was steadily solved by its engineers. Probe survival rate went from just 23 minutes with Venera 7 to 110 minutes with Venera 12 in 1978. Subsequent lander and orbiter missions also found basalt deposits and helped map parts of Venus' continents.

In the end, the Venera program was partially retired in 1983 with the twin Vega probes, launched in 1985 which were based on Venera designs and then finally ended as the USSR faced increasing fiscal overruns and internal unrest.

Implications on Astronomy

The Venera program's grand implications are vast as was the data it returned for use by researchers worldwide. While Mars was always the apple of the eyes of those darn sci-fi heathens, astronomers were always more entranced by the bright Earth-sized planet that was Venus.

Greenhouse effect Without the atmospheric data returned on the Venusian atmosphere, a basis of comparison with Earth's own climatology would not be possible and the present speculations on our own planet's global warming would be much much less based in scientific fact.

Planetary Development Piercing the howling carbon dioxide barrier, those watching were treated to another path for an Earth-like planet, not just meteorologically but also geologically. With massive amounts of gigantic volcanoes and nearly untouched craters seemingly immune from erosion, Venus offered an ideal source of data on these two features and how much an atmosphere with up to 90 times the pressure of Earth's played a role in helping develop them.

International Cooperation Before the Soyuz 19-Apollo 18 joint project in space, the importance of gathering data on Venus was critical in fostering an initial attempt at cooperation when data from Venera 4 and Mariner 5 was shared between both the US and USSR, which helped both nations launch more successful probes to visit not just Venus but also other inner planets such as Mercury and Mars.

Before 1990, Venus was also the most-visited planet by both nations until Mars became more of a cause de celebre as claims of bacteria-filled Mars rocks and Martian oceans just under the surface convinced NASA to start sending skateboard-like probes there instead.

Footnotes