Soviet Venera Program

Venera Program Venus and Mars exploration program were part of USSR’s aggressive space exploration program Roughly parallel programs Used much of the same hardware in the initial flights Used same launch vehicles Venera 1-8 Molinya/Luna/Sputnik/Sapwood/R-7 Venera 9-16 Proton

Venera Venera 1 launched February 12, 1961 Flyby mission (heliocentric orbit) No data returned from Venus (communications lost enroute)

Venera Zond 1 launched April 2, 1964 Flyby mission No data returned from Venus (communications lost half-way to Venus)

Venera Venera 2 launched November 12, 1965 Flyby mission (heliocentric orbit) No data returned from Venus (communications lost enroute to Venus)

Venera Venera 3 launched November 16, 1965 First Venus lander mission Successful impact on March 1, 1966 No data returned from Venus (communications failure) Flyby carrier vehicle in heliocentric orbit

Venera Venera 4 launched June 12, 1967 First Venus atmospheric probe Deployed multiple probe instruments Data returned until pressure/temp failure 25 km from surface Flyby bus carried instruments to measure environment and atmosphere

Venera Venera 4 lander Probe slowed by parachute

Venera Venera 4 probe details

Venera Venera 5 launched January 5, 1969 Second Venus atmospheric probe Similar to Venera 4 design but stronger Similar results (excessive pressure & temperature failure before reaching surface)

Venera Venera 6 launched January 10, 1969 Third successful Venus atmospheric probe Similar to Venera 4 and 5, with improvements Similar results (pressure/temp failure before reaching surface)

Venera Venera 7 launched August 17, 1970 First successful Venus lander Similar to Venera 4, 5 and 6 Data returned from the surface for approximately 23 minutes First probe to return signals from the surface of another planet

Venera Venera 7 lander details

Venera Venera 8 launched March 27, 1972 Second successful Venus lander Similar to Venera 4, 5, 6 and 7 Data returned from surface for 30 min Confirmed high temperature & pressures on surface Found suitable light intensity for photography

Venera Venera 9 launched June 8, 1975 Successful lander mission First photographs returned from Venus’ surface Confirmed 485oC temp and 90 atm. pressure Rocks littered surface Small, sharp edges indicated little erosion

Venera 9 images

Venera Venera 10 launched June 15, 1975 Lander mission Returned photographs from surface Similar rock features littered surface

Venera Venera 11 launched September 9, 1978 Venus lander similar to Venera 9, 10 Data returned from some instruments but no images Partial success

Venera Venera 12 launched September 14, 1978 Venus lander similar to Venera 9-11 Like Venera 11, data was returned from some instruments but no images Partial success

Venera Venera 13 launched October, 1981 Venus lander similar to Venera 9-12 spacecraft Venera 13 and 14 were identical First color photographs of the Venus surface

Venera 13 images

Venera 13 instruments (partial list) Camera system X-ray fluorescence spectrometer crew drill Surface sampler Dynamic penetrometer Seismometer

Venera Venera 14 launched November 4, 1981 Venus lander identical to Venera 13 Surface photographs returned Surface temp 465 C, pressure 94 atm

Venera Venera 15 launched June 2, 1983 Venus orbiter and radar mapping mission Identical to Venera 16 Surface images made using synthetic aperture radar Modified orbiter on previous missions

Venera SAR image

Venera Venera 16 launched June 7, 1983 Venus orbiter and radar mapping mission Identical to Venera 15 Surface images used synthetic aperture radar Modified orbiter on previous missions

Synthetic Aperture Radar Venera Synthetic Aperture Radar Uses microwave radar signal to illuminate the 2-dimensional target Motion of spacecraft antenna introduces third dimension Multiple view is made because of broad beamwidth Same technique can applied with fixed radar and moving target

Venera First used to identify surface features of Venus from the Earth Transmitter – military radar Receiver – Aricebo radioastronomy observatory (Puerto Rico) Venus later imaged with orbiting SAR First with Pioneer-Venus High-resolution images of all but the polar regions with Magellan

References http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov Data from NASA Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov