Venus, in all its stinking sizzling glory.Picture: USSR Academy of Sciences / Brown College
Many years earlier than the opposite missions on this record, the USSR launched a collection of probes to Venus. The Venera program (Russian for “Venus”) ran from 1961 to 1983 and included quite a few flyby spacecraft, orbiters, and landers. 4 of these landers—Venera 9, 10, 13, and 14—returned photos from the Venusian floor. However Venera 13’s photos have been the primary in coloration.
Venus’ floor is sort of 900 levels Fahrenheit, with the stress of many dozens of Earth atmospheres. Venera 13 survived solely about two hours on the hostile planet, sending panoramic photos again to Earth. A kind of photos was in coloration: The panorama seems yellow because of the dense ambiance. A model of the picture with these atmospheric results eliminated reveals a stretch of rock and dusty terrain, however not a lot else. A discarded lens cap and the rim of the lander are seen at heart.
Whereas NASA made it to Venus with the Magellan mission, the spacecraft by no means reached the planet’s floor. In 1994, it dove into Venus’ ambiance, the place it burned up. Hopefully the company’s upcoming missions to Venus—VERITAS and DAVINCI+—present us higher views of Venus’ inhospitable terrain.