Venera 7

Venera 7
Venera diagram
Mission type Venus lander
Operator Lavochkin
COSPAR ID 1970-060A
SATCAT no. 4489
Mission duration Travel: 120 days
Lander: 23 minutes
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft 4V-1 No. 630
Manufacturer Lavochkin
Launch mass 1,180 kilograms (2,600 lb)
Landing mass 500 kilograms (1,100 lb)
Start of mission
Launch date 17 August 1970, 05:38:22 (1970-08-17UTC05:38:22Z) UTC
Rocket Molniya 8K78M
Launch site Baikonur 31/6
End of mission
Last contact 15 December 1970, 06:00 (1970-12-15UTC07Z) UTC
Orbital parameters
Reference system Heliocentric
Perihelion 0.69 AU
Aphelion 1.01 AU
Inclination 2.0°
Period 287 days
Venus lander
Landing date 15 December 1970, 05:37:10 UTC
Landing site 5°S 351°E / 5°S 351°E / -5; 351


Seal of Venera 7

Venera 7 (Russian: Венера-7, meaning Venus 7) was a Soviet spacecraft, part of the Venera series of probes to Venus. When it landed on the Venusian surface, it became the first spacecraft to land on another planet and first to transmit data from there back to Earth.[1]

Design

The lander was designed to be able to survive pressure of up to 180 bar and temperatures of 580°C.[2] This was significantly greater than what was expected to be encountered but significant uncertainties as to the surface temperatures and pressure of Venus resulted in the designers opting for a large margin of error.[2] The degree of hardening added mass to the probe which limited the amount of mass available for scientific instruments both on the probe itself and the interplanetary bus.[2]

Launch

The probe was launched from Earth on August 17, 1970, at 05:38 UTC. It consisted of an interplanetary bus based on the 3MV system and a lander.[3] During the flight to Venus two in-course corrections were made using the bus's on-board KDU-414 engine.[3]

Landing

Venera 7 entered the atmosphere of Venus on December 15, 1970.[3] The lander remained attached to the interplanetary bus during the initial stages of atmospheric entry[3] to allow the bus to cool the lander to −8 °C for as long as possible.[3] The lander was ejected once atmospheric buffeting broke the interplanetary bus's lock-on with Earth.[3] The parachute opened at a height of 60 km and atmospheric testing began with results showing the atmosphere to be 97% carbon dioxide.[3] The parachute appeared to fail during the descent, resulting in a descent more rapid than planned.[3] As a result, the lander struck the surface of Venus at about 16.5 m/s (37 mph) at 05:37:10 UTC.[3] The landing coordinates are 5°S 351°E / 5°S 351°E / -5; 351.[4]

The probe appeared to go silent on impact[3] but recording tapes kept rolling.[5] A few weeks later, upon a review of the tapes, another 23 minutes of very weak signals were found on them.[5] The spacecraft had landed on Venus and probably bounced onto its side, leaving the medium gain antenna not aimed correctly for strong signal transmission to Earth.[5]

The probe transmitted information to Earth for 53 minutes, which included 20 minutes from the surface. It was found that the temperature at the surface of Venus was 475 °C (887 °F) ° ± 20 °C[3][6] Using the temperature and models of the atmosphere a pressure of 9 Megapascal ± 1.5 MPa was calculated.[7] From the spacecraft's rapid halt (from falling to stationary inside 0.2 seconds) it was possible to conclude that the craft had hit a solid surface with low levels of dust.[7]

The probe provided information about the surface of Venus, which could not be seen through a thick veil of atmosphere. The spacecraft definitively confirmed that humans cannot survive on the surface of Venus, and excluded the possibility that there is any liquid water on Venus.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Science: Onward from Venus". TIME. 8 February 1971. Retrieved 2 January 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 Huntress Jr, Wesley T.; Marov, Mikhail (2011). Soviet Robots in the Solar System Mission Technologies and Discoveries. Springer-Praxis. p. 235. ISBN 9781441978974.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Reeves, Robert (1994). The Superpower Space Race: An Explosive Rivalry through the Solar System. Plenum Press. pp. 211–215. ISBN 0-306-44768-1.
  4. ↑ Patrick Moore, The data book of astronomy. CRC Press, 2000, p. 92.
    See Table 5-5, Missions to Venus, 1961-2000. Landing near Navka Planitia
  5. 1 2 3 "Larry Klaes, THE SOVIETS AND VENUS, PART 1, 1993". Archived from the original on 2015-09-29. Retrieved 2015-09-29.
  6. ↑ Итоги работы станции "Венера-7"
  7. 1 2 Ulivi, Paolo; Harland, David M (2007). Robotic Exploration of the Solar System Part I: The Golden Age 1957-1982. Springer. pp. 97–99. ISBN 9780387493268.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.