I would not disagree, though the Soviet Union had already put a probe within the atmosphere of Venus in 1967. In 1970 they landed a probe on its surface!! They

I would not disagree, though the Soviet Union had already put a probe within the atmosphere of Venus in 1967. In 1970 they landed a probe on its surface!! They were called the Venera [1] probes. They also returned audio and picture from the surface of Venus. Absolutely remarkable if you're never heard it before. This [2] is the sound of the probe coming down through Venus' atmosphere, its landing, the lens cap (for the camera) popping off, the deploying of the drill, and then the drilling of course. In my opinion that remains arguably the most remarkable achievement in planetary science in our solar system. Although it must be said that that audio came much later than the earlier probes. "Much later" being about 40 years ago. I think the recent discovery/confirmation that our moon has substantial reserves of water ice emphasizes the difficulties with technology outside of manned exploration. There's a lot of information you can obtain from probes and other forms of remote observation, but it tends to be extremely specialized and very limited. This is not something we should be discovering 40 years after landing on it -- water was confirmed in 2009. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera [2] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jZDW53U8qQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jZDW53U8qQ