The Venera (Вене́ра, vjɪˈnjɛrə, which means "Venus" in Russian) program was the name given to a series of space probes developed by the Soviet Union between 1961 and 1984 to gather information about the planet Venus.
Thirteen probes successfully entered the Venusian atmosphere, including the two Vega program and Venera-Halley probes. Ten of those successfully landed on the surface of the planet. Due to the extreme surface conditions on Venus, the probes could only survive for a short period on the surface, with times ranging from 23 minutes to two hours.
The Venera program established a number of precedents in space exploration, among them being the first human-made devices to enter the atmosphere of another planet (Venera 3 on 1 March 1966), the first to make a soft landing on another planet (Venera 7 on 15 December 1970), the first to return images from another planet's surface (Venera 9 on 8 June 1975), the first to record sounds on another planet (Venera 13 on 30 October 1981), and the first to perform high-resolution radar mapping scans (Venera 15 on 2 June 1983).
Venera 1 and Venera 2
The first Soviet attempt at a flyby probe to Venus was launched on 4 February 1961, but failed to leave Earth orbit. In keeping with the Soviet policy at that time of not announcing details of failed missions, the launch was announced under the name Tyazhely Sputnik ("Heavy Satellite"). It is also known as Venera 1VA.
As with some of the Soviet Union's other planetary probes, the later versions were launched in pairs, with a second vehicle launched soon after the first.
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 of Venus and remains in heliocentric orbit. Venera 2 launched on November 12, 1965, but also suffered a telemetry failure after leaving Earth orbit.
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.
The atmosphere of Venus is primarily of supercritical carbon dioxide and is much denser and hotter than that of Earth. The temperature at the surface is 740 K (467 °C, 872 °F), and the pressure is , roughly the pressure found underwater on Earth. The Venusian atmosphere supports opaque clouds of sulfuric acid, making optical Earth-based and orbital observation of the surface impossible. Information about the topography has been obtained exclusively by radar imaging. Aside from carbon dioxide, the other main component is nitrogen.
A lander is a spacecraft that descends towards, then comes to rest on, the surface of an astronomical body other than Earth. In contrast to an impact probe, which makes a hard landing that damages or destroys the probe upon reaching the surface, a lander makes a soft landing after which the probe remains functional. For bodies with atmospheres, the landing occurs after atmospheric entry. In these cases, landers may employ parachutes to slow them down enough to maintain a low terminal velocity.
Venera 4 (Венера-4), also designated 4V-1 No.310, was a probe in the Soviet Venera program for the exploration of Venus. The probe comprised a lander, designed to enter the Venusian atmosphere and parachute to the surface, and a carrier/flyby spacecraft, which carried the lander to Venus and served as a communications relay for it. In 1967, it was the first successful probe to perform in-place analysis of the environment of another planet.
Explores the lessons learned from diverse space exploration missions, covering topics such as spacecraft design, lunar sample return, and mission costs.
Space debris that re-enter the Earth's atmosphere can be partially or fully ablated along the trajectory path after hitting the atmosphere layers, once these become denser (approximately below 82 km). This paper combines re-entry survival analysis to by-pr ...
2020
, , , , , ,
In hydrology, it is crucial to understand the atmospheric flow dynamics in mountainous terrain to predict turbulent exchanges of heat and moisture accurately at the regional scale. Under clear sky and weak synoptic conditions, these land–atmosphere interac ...