Those were the times, it is impossible to imagine! And the point is not even who it was: the USSR or the USA. People launched satellites one by one. In 10 years, the USSR alone launched eight satellites to Venus alone! Ie approximately one satellite per year to one planet. Some of the satellites are very serious - with landing or detachable modules. But there was also the study of other planets.
What now? It will be good if one serious satellite in 5 years from the entire Earth flies somewhere. What is it? Have you decided that we all know or this information is not particularly needed by humanity? Or maybe the fact is that the spirit of rivalry has disappeared and now no one wants to spend much on dreams of space? Back to Venus …
Venus is a series of Soviet automatic interplanetary spacecraft for exploring the planet Venus and outer space. The harsh conditions on Venus, as well as an initial lack of reliable information on parameters such as temperature and pressure, greatly complicated the process of exploring the planet. The descent vehicles of the first series even had a buoyancy reserve.
Their first flights were unsuccessful - but these were the first automatic interplanetary flights in the history of mankind …
The first launches to a distant planet took place in February 1961. Then it was not yet a tradition, but the launches were already made in pairs. On February 4, the first Venusian station, made at OKB-1 by Sergey Pavlovich Korolev, took off. For the first time, the Molniya carrier rocket was able to put the spacecraft into orbit, but the upper stage did not work, and the station, which according to the documents passed as "object 1VA", did not go to Venus.
If the launch had been an emergency, it would have been possible to keep silent about it - the Soviet government really did not like to admit failures - but there was a satellite! And then in the TASS message it was announced to the whole world about the launch of a heavy satellite with a mass of 6483 kg and the successful completion of the scientific and technical tasks set at the same time. By the way, he did not have any other name: the name "Sputnik-7", found in some sources, was given by Western analysts, as they say, "for definiteness."
But what happened next …
Promotional video:
By the way, it was precisely the unjustified in many cases veil of secrecy that surrounded the Soviet space program that gave rise to a huge number of rumors and speculation. And after the launch of the "heavy satellite" on February 4 in the west, many believed that the Russians had unsuccessfully launched a man into space.
On February 12, the second station, type 1BA, took off. She was more lucky - the rocket worked successfully, the upper stage too, and Soviet newspapers came out with huge headlines about the launch of the world's first automatic interplanetary station to Venus. (Later, in hindsight, she was given the name "Venus-1".)
In those days, the ideas of scientists about Venus were very scanty and contradictory. The hypothesis that its surface is covered by the ocean was seriously considered, and therefore the first Soviet spacecraft to Venus were calculated for splashdown. Their design included a "sugar castle" - the sugar had to melt in the water, after which the antennas of the descent vehicle were opened - and the Soviet pennant was made in the form of a sphere capable of floating in the ocean. How wrong these ideas were …
But Venera-1 never made it to its target. The second and last communication session with it took place on February 17 at a distance of 1.9 million km from the Earth, and on March 3 the device was declared dead. On May 19, a silent unmanaged station passed at a distance of 100 thousand km from Venus.
New unmanned interplanetary stations were sent to Venus at each astronomical launch window (that is, a favorable relationship between the Earth and Venus so that the flight would take place with the lowest energy consumption; for Venus this period is about 19 months), but the Venusian program was pursued by a streak of failures:
Three vehicles of the WW2 family, two landing and one orbital, were lost in accidents in the fall of 1962 - August 25, September 1 and 12. In all three cases, Upper Stage L, the fourth stage of the "Lightning", did not work. No announcement of launches was published, and the American and British catalogs were replenished with Sputniks numbered 19, 20 and 21. But the Americans were lucky in this astronomical window - Mariner 2 passed Venus in December and transmitted the survey data and remote measurements.
It was decided to launch the first spacecraft of the 3MV type outside the astronomical window, on November 11, 1963, in order to test the station itself and the technology of flight to Venus. Alas, the station again remained in low-earth orbit. It received the official name "Cosmos-21", but the TASS report did not say, as usual, that all the systems of the apparatus are working normally, and the program is being executed successfully.
The second experimental device died due to the crash of the Molniya rocket on February 19, 1964. The first standard station of the 3MV family remained in low-earth orbit on March 27, 1964 under the name Kosmos-27. This time the camouflage was complete - TASS reported that all the equipment installed on board was working normally.
Relative success came on April 2, 1964, when Probe-1 departed towards Venus. From the very beginning, leaks in the orbital compartment of the spacecraft were registered, the device was doomed - therefore, in fact, it was not given the name "Venus". Nevertheless, for almost two months, communication with him was maintained through the transmitter of the descent vehicle, and on May 14, a trajectory correction was even carried out. Communication ceased on May 25, 1964, the station passed by Venus, already dead.
The fourth astronomical window "opened" at the end of 1965. It seemed that the long-awaited success had finally arrived! AMS "Venera-2" and "Venera-3" set off safely on November 12 and 16, 1965, in order to reach the distant planet next spring. Only the third station was unlucky, which remained in the launch table under the name "Kosmos-96".
But again fate turned to us the wrong side! "Venus-2", despite the overheating of the receiver and poor command transmission in 26 communication sessions, was brought almost to Venus. On February 27, 1966, it was supposed to pass the planet and shoot it from a distance of 24 thousand km. Alas, the station did not accept the work program sent to her for the day of the passage and did not transmit any data about Venus.
Even more offensive was the loss of the Venera-3. Yes, for the first time in the history of mankind, a spacecraft created on Earth reached another planet and entered its atmosphere. On approach, Venera-3 separated a spherical descent vehicle with a diameter of 0.9 m with a thermal protective coating, equipped with a radio communication system, scientific instruments. He also carried a special pennant that was to be delivered to the planet. The lander entered the atmosphere of Venus on March 1, 1966 - but the last and most important communication session did not take place, and no information about its fate was received.
Finally, the first truly great success of the USSR was the Venera-4 interplanetary station (you can see its descent vehicle in the photo on the left), launched on June 12, 1967. Unlike previous stations, Venera-4 and its unlucky twin Kosmos-167 (you, of course, easily guessed what happened to it) were manufactured by the team of Georgy Nikolaevich Babakin at the Lavochkin Machine-Building Plant.
Venera 4 reached its target on October 18. The descent vehicle with a set of scientific equipment safely separated and for the first time in the history of cosmonautics made direct measurements of the composition of the atmosphere of Venus during its descent by parachute. The descent vehicle could operate at temperatures up to + 425 ° C and at pressures of up to 10 atmospheres, and to increase the chances of success, it landed on the night side of the planet. Before the start, he was sterilized in order to prevent the transfer of terrestrial microorganisms to Venus.
The signal stopped suddenly 95 minutes after the start of the descent, 25-26 km below the starting point, when it was + 280 ° C and 15 atmospheres overboard. At first it seemed to everyone that this was the moment of landing and that Venera-4 had managed to reach the surface in working order. And only a few weeks after comparing the data of "Venus-4" with measurements from the American station Mariner 5, which passed the planet on October 19, it became clear: this is a mistake. In fact, at an altitude of about 28 km, the apparatus was crushed by atmospheric pressure, which turned out to be much higher than that provided for in the design.
At the next window, on January 5 and 10, 1969, two stations took off: Venera-5 and Venera-6. The first time, both launches were successful, and two AMS lay on a course towards Venus. In their design, they were similar to Venera-4, with the exception of the descent vehicle, which was designed to operate at pressures up to 25 atmospheres. In an amicable way, this was not enough, but there was not enough time for a more serious modernization.
Both stations reached the planet and dropped the descent vehicles: Venera-5 reached its target on May 16, 1969, and Venera-6 on May 17. After opening the parachutes of the descent vehicles, scientific instruments were switched on and the transmission of scientific information to Earth began. The entire descent by parachute took about 50 minutes, after which, at an altitude of 18 kilometers at a pressure of about 27 atmospheres, both SAs were crushed.
To carry out measurements in the lower atmosphere and on the surface of Venus, descent vehicles were needed that could withstand an external pressure of more than 100 atm and have thermal insulation that ensured the operation of onboard equipment at an ambient temperature of up to + 475 ° C.
Venera-7, launched on August 17, 1970 (the second station launched on August 22, remained in low-Earth orbit and received the official name "Cosmos-359"), was developed and built taking into account the flight experience of previous AMS. The descent vehicle (its section is on the left) was designed anew, and it had to work for at least 30 minutes on the surface at temperatures up to + 540 ° C and pressures up to 150 atmospheres. The theoretical values obtained for the planet's surface were as follows: 500 ° C and 100 atmospheres, so that the SA was built with a margin. Just in case of fire.
120 days after the launch, on December 15, 1970, the Venera-7 station reached the planet. Upon entering the atmosphere, the orbital and descent vehicles separated. During aerodynamic deceleration, the vehicle's speed relative to the planet decreased from 11.5 km / s to 200 m / s. At the same time, the maximum overloads reached 350 units. At an altitude of about 55 km from the surface of Venus, with an external pressure of about 0.7 atmospheres, the automation system launched the parachute.
On December 15, at 8:34 am, 10 seconds, the Venera-7 descent vehicle made the world's first soft landing on the surface of Venus. In total, he transmitted information to Earth for 53 minutes, including about 20 minutes from the surface of Venus. The measured temperature near the surface of Venus was 475 ° ± 20 ° C; it corresponded to a pressure of 90 ± 15 atmospheres.
In the next astronomical window, two stations again set off on a long journey. Venera 8 was launched on March 27, 1972, with a replica on March 31. The second launch, according to the sad Venusian "tradition", was unsuccessful. The first three stages of the launch vehicle worked normally, ensuring the launch of the head unit into the reference near-earth orbit, however, the station did not enter the interplanetary trajectory due to the accident of the upper stage. The device, named "Cosmos-482", remained in low-earth orbit.
The automatic station "Venera-8" in terms of flight targets and tasks almost completely repeated the station "Venera-7". Based on the results of the flight of the previous station, the model of the planet's atmosphere was corrected, which made it possible to design a new descent vehicle for real conditions with a small margin. Instead of the design pressure of 150 atmospheres, 105 atmospheres were taken, and instead of 540 ° - 493 ° С. The decrease in the maximum values of the temperature and pressure of the Venusian atmosphere made it possible to reduce the thickness of the wall of the instrument compartment of the spacecraft, which made it possible to reduce the weight of the descent vehicle by 38.5 kg.
In one of the laboratories of the 601st department there is a prepared copy of the AMS "Venera-8". We will dwell on its program and design in more detail.
Venus-8.
1. 117 days after the launch, on July 22, 1972, the Venera-8 station reached the planet. When entering the atmosphere of Venus, the descent vehicle separated from the station. In the process of aerodynamic braking in the atmosphere, in which the device experienced overloads up to 335 g, its speed decreased from 11.6 km / s to 250 m / s, after which a parachute system was put into operation at an altitude of ~ 55 km. With the opening of the parachute, the transmission of scientific and service information began.
2. After 55 minutes of smooth descent by parachute in the atmosphere, the vehicle landed on the illuminated side of Venus, 500 km from the morning terminator near the equator, and the vertical speed at the moment of touchdown was 8.3 m / s. Receiving radio signals and telemetry information continued for another 50 minutes after landing. All this time, the onboard systems and scientific instruments worked normally, which made it possible to obtain complete information not only about the atmosphere of Venus, but also about the conditions on its surface.
The flight program of the Venera-8 station was completed in full.
3. In order to determine the illumination of the planet's surface, necessary for taking photographs on it on the next-generation descent vehicles, the complex of scientific equipment of the descent vehicle was supplemented with an IOV 72 photometer. In addition to it, various scientific equipment was installed on the spacecraft.
4. AMC filling is a complex electronic circuit, where many operations were interconnected and automated. All this was done without any computers using a time program device.
5. PVU - an electronic device installed on board the spacecraft, which issues control commands for onboard systems at specified times. The command issuing program (sequence and time intervals between them) can be set in advance (for example, when preparing for flight) or set in flight from the Earth via a command radio link; in the latter case, a device is needed to memorize the entered program. PVU allows to control the spacecraft in the absence of radio visibility and in the intervals between sessions of radio communication with the Earth.
6. Corrective Propulsion System for correcting the AMS orbit and for braking before entering the atmosphere of Venus.
7. The unique information transmitted from the Venera-8 lander has significantly expanded our knowledge about the planet Venus, including the conditions on its surface.
8. And this is how Venera-8 looks in the laboratory. From left to right: descent vehicle (complete), gutted instrument compartment and engine compartment with CDU. Above is a large antenna.
9. Some kind of equipment.
10. And more wires, tubes and devices.
11. The descent vehicle AMS of the Venera family. Presumably Venera 7, but I'm very much unsure.
12. The descent vehicle "Venus-8" on the surface of the planet.
The installed photometer showed that the illumination of the Venus surface at an angle of the Sun of 5.5 ° is 350 ± 150 lux, which indicates that only a small part of the solar radiation reaches the planet's surface. If the Sun is at its zenith, then the illumination should be at least 1000-3000 lux, which is quite enough to obtain photographic images. Therefore, the next missions to Venus already had the task of photographing its surface.
Venera-8 became the last station of the first generation, designed to use the Molniya LV. Subsequent vehicles were designed for the heavy "Proton". Because of this, there were no launches in the 1973 astronomical window, and in June 1975, two completely new vehicles went to Venus: Venera-9 and −10. Both launches were successful, and in October the spacecraft reached the planet's surface, from where for the first time in the world they transmitted photo-television images - panoramas.
Image from "Venus-9":
Image from "Venus-10":
Soviet exploration of Venus continued until 1985, when descent vehicles from the AMS "Vega-1" and "Vega-2" landed on its surface. In addition to the descent vehicles, balloon probes were launched, which drifted at an altitude of 50-60 kilometers. Each probe worked for about 46 hours, covering a distance of 12,000 kilometers during this time at an average speed of 250 km / h.
And in the interval between "Venus-8" and "Vega" were launched AMS with serial numbers 11-16 (moreover, there were no emergency launches). Colored panoramas of the surface were first obtained on "Venera" Nos. 13 and 14; on them, with the help of a drill, soil samples were taken and examined. On "Venus-13" the sound was recorded for the first time on another planet - it turned out to be thunder. Two stations - "Venera-15" and -16 - conducted a successful radar survey of the surface of Venus from orbit with a higher quality than the American Pioneer Venus Orbiter before them.
After 1985, the USSR and Russia did not make any launches for Venus exploration. Whether they will be in the near future is unknown. In total, 30 launches towards this planet were carried out in the USSR, of which 15 can be considered successful.
Lander AMS "Venera13".