The first Venusian surface images from the Venera historical journey

Venera is a space program with a series of spacecraft launched by the Soviet Union into space in the 1970s and 1980s to study the environment on Venus. The purpose of the project is to obtain the first images of the surface of an extraterrestrial planet.

During the project, 13 amphibious ships successfully approached Venus and transferred data to Earth's "neighbor" , eight of which landed successfully on the surface and four sent ships. Amazing photos of this faraway land.

Venera 7 is the first reconnaissance orbiter to land on another planet, launched from Earth on August 17, 1970. After four months of "transit" in Venus' orbit, the lander left orbit on December 15 and entered the planet's dense atmosphere. After a period of aerodynamic braking, the head and heat shield are released. The parachute unfolded 6 minutes later to slow the landing; however, the condensed atmosphere here is sufficient to slow this 29-minute process. The landing was successful, the data was transmitted from the surface within 1 second before losing the connection, but the after-flight analysis from the radio frequency showed that the landing ship was indeed transmitting the data. for the previous 23 minutes before burying yourself in the environment on Venus. The voyage was followed by Venera 8 on March 27, 1972, approaching Venus on July 22, 1972, when the ship touched the surface that had transmitted the data within 63 minutes.

Venera 9, launched on June 8, 1975, was the first mission in an attempt to capture an image of the surface of Venus. Although the lander landed in good condition on October 22, only one of the two lenses was detached. Therefore, instead of capturing a 360-degree image around the lander as expected, only the 180-degree image is obtained. Venera 1 0 set foot on Venus on October 25, continuing to suffer the same problem Venera 9. Once again only one of the lens caps was opened as planned, transmitting the image 180 degrees ahead when completely disconnected after 65 minutes of operation.

The panoramic image of Venera 9 is the image above and Venera 10 is the image below.

The next two missions were only partially successful.Venera 11 landed on December 25 and Venera was December 21, both in 1978. But in both of these missions, there was a problem with the lens, both lens caps were inseparable, so images from the lander cannot be obtained.

Verena 13 was launched on October 30, 1981 and landed on Venus on March 1, 1982. Upon landing on Venus' surface, cameras began to take panoramic photos around the landing area. Spacecraft exists for 127 minutes before officially stopping operation.

Viewing angle from the left camera of Venera 13.

Viewing angle from the right camera of Venera 13.

Panoramic photos from Venera 13

Venera 14 is the ultimate landing mission. It was launched on November 4, 1981 and landed on Venus' surface on March 5, 1982. The amphibious ship was operational for 57 minutes before completely losing contact.

View from Venera 14.

The images captured on Venus's surface may not be as beautiful as the view we see on Mars, but considering the harsh environmental conditions that landers have to struggle to send back. this picture - temperatures up to 482 degrees Celsius and atmospheric pressure 92 times more than on Earth - then maybe everything is really wonderful.