Of course, the 60-80s of the last century were decades of the dawn of astronautics. A huge number of ships were launched, each of which had a specific purpose, allowing you to learn a little more about other planets, stars, space itself. And almost the most interesting object for scientists was Venus. Let's talk about her and her research.
Who discovered Venus?
According to some experts, the ancient Mayans discovered this planet back in the seventh century BC.
It was not difficult to do this - it is the brightest object in the night sky, except for the moon.
But it is precisely known that of European scientists for the first time Galileo Galilei became seriously interested in this planet. From it began the history of the study of Venus. He discovered the planet in 1610 using a specially designed telescope. Thanks to the knowledge gained, the astronomer became convinced of the correctness of his theory that all planets revolve around the Sun, and not the Earth, that is, the heliocentric model of the world has received evidence.
Much later, in 1761, M.V. Lomonosov, who was also interested in the study of Venus, managed to make an important discovery - there is an atmosphere on it.
Planet features
To begin with, this particular planet is one of the closest to us. After all, the distance from Earth to Venus at some moments is only 38 million kilometers - by astronomical standards, very close. True, at another time, this figure rises to 261 million.
It completes a revolution around the Sun in 225 Earth days, so the year there is much shorter than ours. Surprisingly, the planet spins around its axis in as many as 243 days. Thus, a day there lasts almost 20 days longer than a year.
In addition, compiling a description of Venus, one can not help but say that it is the only planet in the solar system that does not rotate clockwise, like the others, but against.
Difficulty learning
For many years, the study of Venus was hampered by the primitiveness of equipment. Still, the telescopes that astronomers used 100-200 years ago left much to be desired. Obtaining new important information with their help was not easy, because most of the time the distance from Earth to Venus is over 100 million kilometers.
But in the twentieth century, spacecraft came to the rescue , which were supposed to help in the study. Alas, the orbital survey helped little in collecting data about the planet. A very dense veil of clouds almost completely hides the surface of Venus.
Therefore, it was decided to land the device. They became the "Venus-4", launched in 1967. Upon reaching their destination after almost three months, the device was simply crushed by tremendous pressure. It is 90 times higher than the earth. Prior to this experiment, no evidence of such a significant difference with earth pressure was known.
The high density of the atmosphere also causes researchers many difficulties - the equipment in it does not work for long, and with an extreme decrease it burns out very quickly.
Separately, it is worth saying that on the planet acid rains are frequent, easily damaging fragile equipment.
Finally, during the day, the surface temperature rises to 500 degrees, which further complicates the operation of the apparatus, forcing to design heavy-duty equipment that can withstand the most adverse working conditions.
Successful launches of spacecraft
The real exploration of Venus began in 1961, when the first artificial object was sent to it. It was developed by Soviet scientists (who made the greatest contribution to the study of our inhospitable neighbor) and sent in 1961. Alas, due to the loss of communication, the aircraft did not fulfill its task.
Several subsequent projects, both Russian and American, were more successful - the equipment did not decrease, but collected information at a decent distance. Finally, in 1967, "Venus-4" was launched, about the sad fate of which we have already told. However, this failure also made it possible to draw a lesson.
The tasks of the Venera-5 and Venera-6 apparatuses were the descent into the atmosphere and the collection of data on its composition, which the equipment did very well. But when developing the next project - "Venus-7" - the engineers took into account all their flaws. As a result, the equipment received a huge margin of safety - it could work at a pressure 180 times higher than the earth. In 1970, the device successfully landed on the surface of Venus (for the first time in the history of mankind!), Collected and transmitted important data. True, he worked only 20 minutes - for some reason the parachute did not open to the end, which is why the landing was not as soft as it should have been.
Launched two years later, the Venera-8 apparatus coped with its task perfectly - gently landing, he collected soil samples and transmitted important information to Earth.
Long-awaited shots
The main achievement of the Venera-9 project, launched in 1975, was the first black-and-white photographs of the surface. Finally, mankind has learned what a "neighbor" looks like under a thick layer of clouds.
“Venus-10”, the launch of which took place just a week after the previous project, performed a double function - played the role of an artificial satellite of the planet, and also gently landed the module, which also took several priceless shots.
The Venera-13 and Venera-14 vehicles, launched in June 1981, also did an excellent job with the mission. Having reached their destination, they transmitted the first color panoramic images and even recorded sound from the surface of another planet. Today it is the only audio data from Venus available in the collection of mankind.
Alas, after the collapse of the USSR, space exploration of Venus practically ceased. Over the past 20 years, only four projects have been successfully completed - the USA, Europe and Japan. They did not provide any data interesting to ordinary people.
Conclusion
As you can see, the studies of Venus, although they allowed us to collect a lot of valuable data about this planet, still leave a lot of questions. Perhaps in the future, humanity will revive in itself an interest in the near and deep space and will be able to find answers to them. In the meantime, we have to be content with the information that was collected by a powerful power almost half a century ago.