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Why did USSR pursue Venus? Surely a far harder target for success than Mars. (At least given the nasty planetary conditions). Imagine how cool it would be to ha

Why did USSR pursue Venus? Surely a far harder target for success than Mars. (At least given the nasty planetary conditions). Imagine how cool it would be to have worked on something that landed on Venus. Whew.

m4rtink 5y ago
AFAIK mainly probe lifetime - at least early on the Soviets had a lot of issues with that. For Venus you only have to keep the probe working for a month or tu max, for Mars it needs two survive for almost a year at the minimum.
- dredmorbius 5y ago
  The successful Venus landers had operational lives on the ground ranging from 23 minutes to 2 hours. Months would have been phenomenal successes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera
  - m4rtink 5y ago
    I should have been more precise - I should have said probe flight times. The few early Soviet Mars probes that survived launch died on the way before they could reach the planet. For Venus transit the whole thing needs to keep working for much shorter time before descent module lands and the mission is over in minutes, as you mention.
    - dredmorbius 5y ago
      Ah, thanks for the clarification. It doesn't seem that transit-phase failure was a primary cause of incomplete Soviet Mars missions, though several did fail after systems (mostly electronics) malfunctioned during coast phase. Several failed in boost phase, or in leaving Earth orbit. Two of seven missues suffered from electronics degradation which either resulted in a total or partial failure to reach the Martian surface. Mars 2 & 3, both soft landers, failed for other reasons (navigation, and perhaps Martian meterological conditions), though both arrived at the surface. Mars 2 perhaps rather faster than desired. Mars 4 & 6 both seem to have suffered transit-stage electronics failures. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_program https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_program
pvg 5y ago
Surely a far harder target for success than Mars. It's a bit of a mixed bag and if you pop a level up on the linked site and go through the various probe pages, you'll find discussion of many of the issues. One mildly counter-intuitive difference is that the atmosphere on Venus is so thick you can parachute/freefall probes onto the surface, landings on Mars are 'harder' in a very literal sense that's waylaid many Mars missions.

m4rtink 5y ago

AFAIK mainly probe lifetime - at least early on the Soviets had a lot of issues with that. For Venus you only have to keep the probe working for a month or tu max, for Mars it needs two survive for almost a year at the minimum.

dredmorbius 5y ago
The successful Venus landers had operational lives on the ground ranging from 23 minutes to 2 hours. Months would have been phenomenal successes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera
- m4rtink 5y ago
  I should have been more precise - I should have said probe flight times. The few early Soviet Mars probes that survived launch died on the way before they could reach the planet. For Venus transit the whole thing needs to keep working for much shorter time before descent module lands and the mission is over in minutes, as you mention.
  - dredmorbius 5y ago
    Ah, thanks for the clarification. It doesn't seem that transit-phase failure was a primary cause of incomplete Soviet Mars missions, though several did fail after systems (mostly electronics) malfunctioned during coast phase. Several failed in boost phase, or in leaving Earth orbit. Two of seven missues suffered from electronics degradation which either resulted in a total or partial failure to reach the Martian surface. Mars 2 & 3, both soft landers, failed for other reasons (navigation, and perhaps Martian meterological conditions), though both arrived at the surface. Mars 2 perhaps rather faster than desired. Mars 4 & 6 both seem to have suffered transit-stage electronics failures. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_program https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_program

pvg 5y ago

Surely a far harder target for success than Mars. It's a bit of a mixed bag and if you pop a level up on the linked site and go through the various probe pages, you'll find discussion of many of the issues. One mildly counter-intuitive difference is that the atmosphere on Venus is so thick you can parachute/freefall probes onto the surface, landings on Mars are 'harder' in a very literal sense that's waylaid many Mars missions.