The Venera program was a series of space probes developed by the Soviet Union between 1961 and 1984. The probes established a number of precedents in space exploration, among them being the first human-made devices to enter the atmosphere of another planet. It was the last mission to be launched under the name Tyazhely Sputnik, which means ‘Venus’ in Russian.
About Venera in brief
The Venera program was a series of space probes developed by the Soviet Union between 1961 and 1984 to gather information about the planet Venus. Ten probes successfully landed on the surface of the planet, while thirteen probes successfully entered the Venusian atmosphere. Due to the extreme surface conditions on Venus, the probes could only survive for a short period on the planet’s surface, with times ranging from 23 minutes to two hours. The probes established a number of precedents in space exploration, among them being the first human-made devices to enter the atmosphere of another planet. The first to make a soft landing on another planet, the first to return images from another planet’s surface, and the first. to perform high-resolution radar mapping scans. The VenerA 7 probe was the first one designed to survive Venus surface conditions and to make an easy landing. The cruise bus of Vener a 7 and 8 was similar to that of the earlier ones with the design of ascending to the surface and descending by parachute.
The Zonder probe was equipped with an extended set of scientific instruments for studying the surface. On December 15 1970, on the first humans-made probe to transmit data from the Venus surface of Venus, it became the first-ever probe to do so. The mission ended on December 15, 1984, with the launch of the Zonderser probe, the second probe to land on Venus and the third to perform a high- resolution radar mapping scan of its surface. It was the last mission to be launched under the name Tyazhely Sputnik, which means ‘Venus’ in Russian. It is believed to have passed within 100,000 km of Venus and remains in heliocentric orbit. The two Vega probes were launched in pairs with a second vehicle launched soon after the first in 1961. As with some of the Soviet Republic’s other planetary probes, the later versions were launch in pairs.
You want to know more about Venera?
This page is based on the article Venera published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 14, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.