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50 Years Ago, Venera 7 Became the First Spacecraft to Land on Another Planet

Several Soviet missions landed on Venus and sent back pictures.

By Peter BurnsPublished 3 years ago 6 min read
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Venera on Venus (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

On the 15th of December 1970 something momentous happened. The Venera 7 spacecraft landed on the surface of Venus, becoming the first human-made object to land on another planet. The landing only confirmed what everyone already knew: Venus was a forbidding place.

The view that scientists had of Venus had not always been like this. In the 19th and early-20th centuries, many people had very romantic notions of the planet. Venus was considered a virtual twin of our own planet Earth by early astronomers. In their imagination, it was a lush, tropical world full of exotic plants and animals.

However, when the instruments got better in the mid-20th century, the harsh reality emerged. Venus is Earth’s twin but from hell. The atmospheric pressure on the surface is 92 times the sea-level pressure on Earth. The temperature gets up to over 500 degrees Celsius. Its atmosphere is ruled by what has been described as a runaway greenhouse effect.

Venus (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Venera 7 becomes the first spacecraft to land safely on another planet

It was these conditions that the Soviet lander had to face. Earlier Venera probes had determined how harsh the Venusian atmosphere really is and these findings were incorporated into the design of Venera 7. In order to maximize the chances of the spacecraft reaching the surface of the planet safely, the number of scientific experiments was limited. The descent vehicle was heavily protected, which made it quite heavy when compared to other similar space equipment.

The interplanetary probe that carried the lander to Venus was launched on the 17th of August 1970 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Located deep in the Kazakh desert, this spaceport was the Soviet Union’s primary launch site. Many of humanity’s iconic spaceflights had their beginning in this dusty part of the world. Sputnik 1, the first human-made satellite, was launched from here. Yuri Gagarin also flew from Baikonur, becoming the first human in space. The Venera probe was carried into Earth’s orbit by the giant Molniya booster, a rocket design that served as the workhorse of the Soviet space program, and was only retired in 2010.

Arriving at Venus a few months later, the Venera 7 probe was set to start its main mission. In that instant, a piece of bad luck almost derailed the entire effort. A mechanical switch on the probe malfunctioned, which nearly paralyzed the communications system. Luckily, one channel still remained. Years later, deputy chief designer Vladimir Perminov described the situation in this way:

“We were lucky, this switch stuck on a temperature reading. Temperature data allows you to estimate pressure too, because they are related.”

With complete disaster averted, the probe entered the planet’s atmosphere on the 15th of December. In order to protect the lander for as long as possible, the interplanetary probe was part of the initial descent into the atmosphere. This had the effect of cooling down the lander to a temperature of negative eight degrees Celsius and preparing it for its further journey downwards.

As the descent commenced, the probe was ejected, leaving only the lander on course for the surface. At 60 kilometers above the Venusian landscape, the parachute opened up. This was designed to allow the lander to land safely. At that point, the scientific instruments came online. They confirmed that the atmosphere was indeed made up of 97% carbon dioxide.

However, it was not all smooth sailing from there. The parachute started to act haphazardly. It inched closer and closer to failure. It held on for a while, but eventually, it failed completely. Fortunately, the lander was still intact. Without a parachute to control the descent, it made a freefall onto the surface. When it touched down on the Venusian ground, it tipped over and landed on its side. This accident prevented the antenna from positioning itself correctly in order to beam a signal to Earth.

Back on Earth, the signal went dead. It seemed as if the mission had failed. However, after the initial disappointment, the astronomers found that the lander did indeed transmit a weak signal back home. It continued to do so for about 20 minutes until it failed completely. The data from the spacecraft confirmed that it hit a solid surface. A human-made object made it to another world and survived long enough to tell the tale.

This amazing adventure gave humanity further clues on its sisterly planet. However, above all, it was a great feat of human engineering. For the first time ever, an object from Earth was able to land on another planet and transmit a signal back to confirm. Humanity had finally arrived.

Venera 1 (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

The Venera Space Program

Venera is the Russian name for Venus, and this was the name chosen for the program that was to send Soviet probes to the planet. Created around 1960, its first official mission was the Venera 1, launched in February 1961. It flew past Venus, but its internal instruments failed. The next mission faced similar problems.

After these setbacks, Soviet scientists were forced to make several adjustments. This was key to the triumph that was to follow. Venera 3 was much more successful. It succeeded in launching a probe into the Venusian atmosphere, which crash-landed on the 1st of March, 1966. This small probe was to go down in history as the first human-made object to ever reach the surface of another planet. A new era of space exploration had just begun.

Venera 4, Venera 5, and Venera 6 all followed the same path, getting into Venusian orbit, and then launching a probe. All probes crash-landed on the planet. The aim of these missions was to study the atmosphere, and these instruments beamed a lot of valuable data on the cloud cover of Venus.

Knowing much more about the planet now, the Soviets decided to attempt a normal landing. This became the Venera 7 probe. It landed on the Venusian surface and sent back a signal. It was a historic moment. After this touchdown, the Venera program started to pick up speed. It was especially bolstered after the Americans announced the Viking program, and their intention to land on Mars. Deciding that it would cost them too much money to compete with the Americans in their conquest of Mars, the Soviets instead concentrated on fortifying their lead on Venus.

“We had to work in a different “weight category”: Venera-type missions were worth 100 million rubles versus the $800 million Viking,”

These were the words that Roald Sagdeev, the head of the Soviet Space Research Institute, wrote many years later describing the reason why the Soviets chose Venus over Mars. For the Soviets, the exploration of Mars took a back seat. Going into the 1970s and 1980s, Venus was the Soviet Union’s primary target for interplanetary discovery.

Venera 8 succeeded in landing on Venus without tipping over. Venera 9 sent back the first pictures from the planetary surface. A series of further missions continued to pile on the firsts. However, after two and a half decades, the entire program was wound up in 1984, with Venera 16 being the last of the Veneras. Overall, this effort was a huge success. It managed to study Earth’s closest neighbor, and even land several vehicles on its surface. The knowledge gained was immense, finally giving us a peek under the cloud cover that shrouds our planet’s closest neighbor.

However, to this day, the planet remains an enigma. Luckily, interest in exploring this hellish world has been rekindled with the recent announcement of phosphine in its atmosphere. While this discovery has since been disputed, the possibilities remain. If indeed true, it could signify the potential of life on Venus.

The interesting part about the planet is that the more humans learn about it, the more it seems like an analogy of Earth. In fact, some scientists believe that the planet had running water on its surface as late as 700 million years ago. This was about the time that multi-cellular life was starting to form on our own planet. The runaway greenhouse effect only took over Venus after that period. Further study of the planet could teach us many valuable lessons. Fascinating discoveries await.

Surface of Venus from Venera Lander (Source: NASA History Office)

Note: I first published this article here.

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About the Creator

Peter Burns

Peter is extremely curious and wants to know how everything works. He blogs at Renaissance Man Journal (http://gainweightjournal.com/).

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