Mariner 2
Soviet Crafts and Mariner 5 and Pioneer Venus
Magellan
Venus Explored By Spacecrafts
Mariner 2
The first spacecraft to study Venus or any other planet upclose was the U.S.
Mariner 2. Launched on August 27, 1962. It flew by the planet on Dec. 14, 1962 after
traveling for 3 1/2 months. It was designed to take measurements of the magnetic fields in
the inner solar system, solar wind and cosmic dust. It was also equipped with a microwave
radiometer to find if the massive amounts of microwaves emanating from the planet was
actually from the surface of Venus. It was finally concluded through the Mariner 2 that
Venus' surface was as hot as 900 degrees Fahrenheit (735 degrees Kelvin). The Venera 1 was
launched before the Mariner 2, but was unsuccesful and failed.
Soviet Crafts and the Mariner 5 and Pioneer Venus
Later, the Soviet spacecraft, Venera 2 flew by Venus on Feb 27,
1966. The Venera 3 launched 4 days after the Venera 2 reached Venus on March 1, 1966, but
crashed into it. The Venera 3 was actually designed to be the first spacecraft to
land on a planet but it never got to do that. Then came a series of spacecraft from both
the Soviet Union and the U.S.A.. The Soviet Venera 4 capsule was parachuted down into the
atmosphere of Venus on Oct. 18, 1967. Venera 4 was the first spacecraft to enter another
planet's atmosphere. It was a success until the atmospheric pressure was too great, at 18
atmospheres (8 time the atmospheric pressure of Earth on the surface). The temperature was
also getting too hot at 500 degrees Fahreinheit. Venera 4 confirmed that the atmosphere
was made mostly of carbon dioxide, the temperatures were very hot and atmospheric pressure
was great. The next day the U.S. Mariner 5 (launched 2 days after the Venera 4) passed
within 2,480 miles of Venus and was more successful at collecting information about Venus.
It was loaded with the most up to date equipment of that time. It found out that the
surface temperature was about 980 degrees Fahreinheit and the atmospheric pressure was 100
atmoshperes.
A few years later, the Venera 7 landed on Venus on Dec. 15, 1970, which made it through but fell over on impact, so no data could be sent. This came after the Soviets had launched the Venera 5 and 6 on Jan 5 and 10 of 1969. The Venera 8 was more successful, which landed on July 22, 1972 and was able to transport data about the ground conditions, like illumination level and rock properties on the surface. The Venera 9 and Venera 10, also followed and landed on Venus. The U.S., in December 1978 sent the crafts Pioneer Venus 1 to orbit the planet and Pioneer Venus Bus and the 4 probes it carried entered Venus' atmosphere. More Soviet Venera crafts, the 11 and 12 also landed on Venus in December 1978, and the 13 and 14 in March.
Coutesy of NASA/JPL
An artist drew this picture of the Pioneer Venus to show what it's supposed to look like. The Pioneer Venus 1 was launched on May 20, 1978.
The Mariner 2 is depicted here by an artist to show how the Mariner 2 would look in space. The Mariner 2 was the first successful spacecraft to study another planet upclose.
This picture was taken from the Venera 13 spacecraft that landed on the Venus. The right side of the spacecraft is shown here.
In 1990, many years later the U.S. spacecraft, the Magellan, began orbiting Venus on Aug. 10. Magellan was equipped with modern instruments that provided radar images detailed enough to make maps of many features. The Magellan was launched May 1989 on the shuttle Atlantis. The Magellan sent back to us more than 1 trillion bytes of data during its 5 year mission. Also Magellan increased the number of named Venusian features from 300 to 1,000. It's mission ended in October 1994. Even though it's dead now, Magellan mapped 99 percent of Venus. It used radar mapping in its first phase and collected gravity data in its second phase. The radar mapping was done by bouncing thousands of pulses of radio energy each second, and then recieving the radar signals that bounced off the surface. It also collected altimetry data, data about how tall each feature was. The Magellan also collected radiometry data so that scientists could have an idea what the chemistry of the surface was. A much clearer picture of what Venus was like became known to us after Magellan. Scientists have analyzed the data and discovered that Venus may have a core that allows plate tectonics to come into play. Still, Venus is very far from being twins with Earth.
This is a map Magellan made of the topography on Venus.
The Gula Mons is shown in this computer generated and false colored image. This was also made from the Magellan data.