http://mentallandscape.com/C_CatalogVenus.htm http://mentallandscape.com/C_CatalogVenus.htm has a neat set of pictures, history, and altimeter data from the Sov

http://mentallandscape.com/C_CatalogVenus.htm http://mentallandscape.com/C_CatalogVenus.htm has a neat set of pictures, history, and altimeter data from the Soviet Venera program. I find the pictures from the surface very eerie and awe-inspiring. These seemingly boring, peaceful looking pictures of rocky ground and clear sky come from a robot in a atmosphere of super-critical CO2, at 460 C, having just descended through clouds of sulfuric acid. Before this robot was melted, crushed, blown away or dissolved into oblivion it took a moment to send us a few pictures of the nearby landscape and tell us what color the sky was. Well done, brave and lonely explorer!