🚀 I'm Your Venus, Baby
Russia goes to Venus, 60 years ago!
Yeah, baby, she's got it
Well, I'm your Venus
I'm your fire, at your desire
Well, I'm your Venus
I'm your fire, at your desire ~ Shocking Blue
Venus:
Venus is Earth’s twin. Because it is almost the same size. 7,521 miles across Venus, and 7,926 miles for Earth. Its orbit is the closest to Earth’s out of all the planets. And both planets have atmospheres with clouds.
But that’s where the similarities end. Venus’ clouds are made of poisonous sulphuric acid. Its air pressure is 90 times that of Earth’s. Venus is a hot one! 870 degrees Fahrenheit. In fact, despite being farther from the sun than Mercury, Venus is hotter than Mercury.
Venus is 900 degrees. I could tell you it melts lead. But that's not as fun as saying, 'You can cook a pizza on the windowsill in nine seconds.' And next time my fans eat pizza, they're thinking of Venus! - Neil deGrasse Tyson
Because of Venus’ size and close proximity to Earth, we can see it in front of the sun when in that position. It is also the 2nd brightest object in the night sky, after our moon.
In fact, Venus can appear so bright that a pilot aboard an Air Canada flight in January 2011 actually mistook the dazzling planet for an oncoming aircraft. The pilot sent his plane into an emergency dive to avoid a midair collision with what investigators later determined was Venus, which was still safely millions of miles away, according to Canadian air transportation officials. (…source)
It takes Venus almost 243 earth days for just one of its days. A day is longer than a year there. What? It takes Venus longer to rotate once on its axis than to complete one orbit of the Sun. That's 243 Earth days to rotate once - the longest rotation of any planet in the Solar System - and only 224.7 Earth days to complete one orbit of the Sun.
Venus spins clockwise on its axis. All of the other planets spin counterclockwise. Venus is upside down.
🚀 The Soviet Venera Unmanned Space Program
This Venus bound space program is called Venera, which translates to Venus in Russian. The program started 60 years ago in 1961, and ended in 1984. It was a fact gathering exercise, and a way for them to improve their all around space initiative. They used a series of probes to gather information about the planet and to learn if the planet ever had life.
The Soviets were quite secretive about this program. They withheld the information they learned about the planet, as well as their space program. There is no consensus as to how many missions were sent to Venus. The following info was gathered from multiple sources.
Venera 1 - (aka Venera-1VA No.2) and Venera 2
This was the second attempt to launch, thus the No.2 name. The first attempt failed to leave Earth’s orbit.
Venera 1 and Venera 2 were intended to fly past Venus without entering orbit. Venera 1 was launched on 12 February 1961. Telemetry on the probe failed seven days after launch. It is believed to have passed within 100,000 km (62,000 mi) of Venus and remains in heliocentric orbit. Venera 2 launched on November 12, 1965, but also suffered a telemetry failure after leaving Earth orbit.
Several other failed attempts at Venus flyby probes were launched by the Soviet Union in the early 1960s, but were not announced as planetary missions at the time, and hence did not officially receive the "Venera" designation. (…source)
Venera 3 - 4
The probe impacted Venus on March 1, 1966, making Venera 3 the first human made object to impact with the surface of another planet. No data from within the Venusian atmosphere was retrieved from the mission.
On October 18, 1967 Venera 4 was successful in that it was the first spacecraft to measure the atmosphere of another planet.
Venera 5 - 6
When the atmosphere of Venus was approached, a capsule weighing 405 kg (893 lb) and containing scientific instruments was jettisoned from the main spacecraft. During satellite descent towards the surface of Venus, a parachute opened to slow the rate of descent. For 53 minutes on 16 May 1969, while the capsule was suspended from the parachute, data from the Venusian atmosphere were returned. It landed at 3°S 18°E. The spacecraft also carried a medallion bearing the State Coat of Arms of the Soviet Union and a bas-relief of Lenin to the night side of Venus.
Given the results from Venera 4, the Venera 5 and Venera 6 landers contained new chemical analysis experiments tuned to provide more precise measurements of the atmosphere's components. Knowing the atmosphere was extremely dense, the parachutes were also made smaller so the capsule would reach its full crush depth before running out of power (as Venera 4 had done). (…source)
Venera 7 - aka Venera 17
Venera 7, which was in fact Venera 17 (the Soviets preferred not to make its failures public - and didn’t number the missions in order as some were excluded). Venera 7’s parachute failed as it was approaching the planet’s surface. But the radio was able to transmit for a few minutes. Thus, it became, on 15 December 1970, the first human-made object to transmit data from the surface of another planet.
Venera 8
After Venera 7, a new generation of spacecraft were flown to the planet, which allowed the USSR to secure leadership in the exploration of Venus and become the first country to get the first image from its surface. The photo was taken less than six months later, by Venera 8. Those were, among other things, the first ever photographs from the surface of another planet.
In total, the Soviet Union launched 27 spacecraft to Venus. The last was Venera 16, after which a new space program, Vega, was launched. In 1984-1986, with the use of a balloon explorer, it successfully studied the Venusian atmosphere and obtained the most accurate to-date data about the planet. (…source)
Sources:
https://www.sciencenews.org/archive/eyes-venera-13-and-14-new-views-venus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera_1
https://www.rbth.com/science-and-tech/333445-russian-rover-venus
https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/venera.html
https://www.sciencenews.org/archive/eyes-venera-13-and-14-new-views-venus
😊 I hope you enjoyed this issue of the Deplatformable Newsletter.
📚 As I aggregate and synthesize the articles, ideas, books, podcasts, interviews, and videos about a particular subject, I learn more than I knew before. My aim is that you have learned also!
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Fascinating stuff! I had no idea about the Soviet exploration of Venus!
Awesome article! I love learning new things....well, actually old things....but stuff I hadn't read about before. Thanks! 💜