4 ms·

The Venera program is definitely one of the "unsung heroes" of planetary exploration. Perhaps the best resource for surface images of Venus (along with fascina

The Venera program is definitely one of the "unsung heroes" of planetary exploration. Perhaps the best resource for surface images of Venus (along with fascinating image reconstruction) is Don P. Mitchell's page: http://mentallandscape.com/C_CatalogVenus.htm http://mentallandscape.com/C_CatalogVenus.htm Another fascinating tidbit: the Soviets also performed the first (and to date, only) deployment of a balloon probe on another planet: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerobot#The_Venus_Vega_balloons http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerobot#The_Venus_Vega_balloons

tomfakes 14y ago
I was going to mention Don - he's a friend of a friend - and the book he's writing about the Russian Venus program. There's a lot of awesome stuff here that almost no-one knows about.
- Wingman4l7 14y ago
  His series of pages on the Venera program[1] just blows all other resources away, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. He mentions on his copyright page[2] that he studied Russian books/papers, befriended & interviewed Russian scientists, dug up rare photographs, and even processed original spacecraft data with custom C++ code to create some of the images! I look forward to his book; does he have an ETA on the publication date? [1]: http://www.mentallandscape.com/V_Venus.htm http://www.mentallandscape.com/V_Venus.htm [2]: http://www.mentallandscape.com/Copyright.htm http://www.mentallandscape.com/Copyright.htm
  - tomfakes 14y ago
    All his friends are pestering him about when he's releasing this book - he's under no pressure to publish and rather enjoys the process of digging up all this stuff and writing the code to process these images.
jl6 14y ago
Wow, this is the first I've heard of the balloon mission. I wonder how long the balloons stayed afloat after the batteries ran down...
- Wingman4l7 14y ago
  Well, I'm finding an operation time of ~46 hours, although the battery life was supposedly 60 hours. I did find this tidbit[1]: "Shortly after passing into daylight, the Vega-2 aerostat plunged several kilometers, to a level of 0.9 atmospheres, dangerously close to the lower limit of its stable float zone. After the end of signal, the balloons probably overheated and burst, somewhere on the daylight side of Venus." [1]: http://www.mentallandscape.com/V_Vega.htm http://www.mentallandscape.com/V_Vega.htm

tomfakes 14y ago

I was going to mention Don - he's a friend of a friend - and the book he's writing about the Russian Venus program. There's a lot of awesome stuff here that almost no-one knows about.

Wingman4l7 14y ago
His series of pages on the Venera program[1] just blows all other resources away, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. He mentions on his copyright page[2] that he studied Russian books/papers, befriended & interviewed Russian scientists, dug up rare photographs, and even processed original spacecraft data with custom C++ code to create some of the images! I look forward to his book; does he have an ETA on the publication date? [1]: http://www.mentallandscape.com/V_Venus.htm http://www.mentallandscape.com/V_Venus.htm [2]: http://www.mentallandscape.com/Copyright.htm http://www.mentallandscape.com/Copyright.htm
- tomfakes 14y ago
  All his friends are pestering him about when he's releasing this book - he's under no pressure to publish and rather enjoys the process of digging up all this stuff and writing the code to process these images.

jl6 14y ago

Wow, this is the first I've heard of the balloon mission. I wonder how long the balloons stayed afloat after the batteries ran down...

Wingman4l7 14y ago
Well, I'm finding an operation time of ~46 hours, although the battery life was supposedly 60 hours. I did find this tidbit[1]: "Shortly after passing into daylight, the Vega-2 aerostat plunged several kilometers, to a level of 0.9 atmospheres, dangerously close to the lower limit of its stable float zone. After the end of signal, the balloons probably overheated and burst, somewhere on the daylight side of Venus." [1]: http://www.mentallandscape.com/V_Vega.htm http://www.mentallandscape.com/V_Vega.htm