The Surface Of Venus As Seen From Soviet Venera Probes In 1981

See that picture on the right? Do you see that big chunk of semi-circular metal in the middle? That's a lens cap. It protects the camera from the Lovecraftian hell that is Venus' atmosphere during the decent. Once the probe lands it pops off so the camera can take a few pictures before being destroyed by the weather.
The Russians had a huge number of problems with those caps; they wouldn't come off. They sent a bunch of probes to Venus that had issues with those lens caps failing to work.
See that picture on the left? Do you see that extended arm-like thing? Once the probe has landed, that arm extends so it touches the ground and gets details of what the surface of Venus is composed of.
Do you see what it's sitting on? That's right. The lens cap.
They finally got the lens cap to come off successfully and it fell in exactly the spot where their surface instrument was supposed to go.
All that instrument did was send back to Russia information about the composition of their own lens cap.

Found this Pic on Reddit , I was amazed by it really ! The quality of the pic form 1981 .
I can honestly say I have never saw this pic before , found it interesting and thought some folks here would enjoy taking a look at it /

Maybe someone with more Info can add to the thread .

Thanks Much

Kap

Cool pics. Never seen them.
It looks like they were also setting a trap for a Venusian bear.

But the landscape in the 2 pics look very different.. was this probe able to move?

originally posted by: Misterlondon
But the landscape in the 2 pics look very different.. was this probe able to move?

two different probes .


read the OP

originally posted by: Kapusta

originally posted by: Misterlondon
But the landscape in the 2 pics look very different.. was this probe able to move?

two different probes .

Actually, two different cameras on the same probe: Venera-13 (scroll down).

Here is a page about the Soviet exploration of Venus: Link

Here is a page about the images returned: Link

These are all from the wonderful Soviet Space Image Catalog, which can give you hours of fascinating research, history and, of course, images.

Enjoy!

a reply to: Kapusta

Incredible images... So otherworldly, I feel like joining the next probe.

Mars at least looks like something was going on at one time.

Venus looks like nothing but baked surface.

originally posted by: Shuye
a reply to: Kapusta

Incredible images... So otherworldly, I feel like joining the next probe.

You would last 10 seconds on Venus

Russian technology is obviously inferior.

Has the US ever put probes on Venus and taken pictures of that or higher quality?

Can you also link to the source and full size pictures please.

originally posted by: smirkley
Mars at least looks like something was going on at one time.

Venus looks like nothing but baked surface.

Actually, if we don't learn how to control greenhouse effect, earth might look very similar. Just imagine all energy converted into heat never escaping surface...

It is not just temperature that would kill you, but pressure, witch is 92 times greater then earth's pressure.


@OP - Thanks for pictures, it really looks good, being made in 1981.

a reply to: bullcat

I know that was sarcasm, right?

a reply to: Kapusta

Beautiful pictures.

I can't wait until we are a bit more advanced with our rocket technology so that we can get probes to these places in much shorter time frames for much longer missions.

At least we have the Pluto probe to look forward to in the next few months.

~Tenth

originally posted by: crazyewok

originally posted by: Shuye
a reply to: Kapusta

Incredible images... So otherworldly, I feel like joining the next probe.

You would last 10 seconds on Venus

What 10 great seconds that would be.

a reply to: tothetenthpower

More probes please. Does anyone know if the tech is near a place where a probe would survive on Venus for a few hours and be able to rover-around?

originally posted by: Aleister
a reply to: tothetenthpower

More probes please. Does anyone know if the tech is near a place where a probe would survive on Venus for a few hours and be able to rover-around?

But, Venera 13 did survive few hours (127 minutes to be precise), and this was technology back from 80's.

There is proposed Venus In Situ explorer, but not sure if it will take off...

a reply to: SuperFrog

Thanks. I've read a lot about Mars probes, but not much about the Venus missions. Would be nice to see a new rover or six sent to the planet.

a reply to: Kapusta

Cool pics, never seen those before.

I relies the pressure and temperatures involved are significant but one would think that in this day of age, and with the meta-materials that we have now or are becoming available, any future probes that we send to Venus should fair somewhat better regarding the environment and there survival time.

Truth be told it looks beautiful, if also rather bleak.

a reply to: Saint Exupery

Ah, so from the link provided, "about the images returned", I see these were originally black and white, but colorized later based on some kind of spectrum analysis or some such sciency thing? We're used to this from all sorts of "space" images, so, no big deal I guess. I'm guessing this is as accurate as one could hope for based on 1981 capabilities (for public consumption of course).

Nice find. I never saw any pictures of Venus before. They sure had their share of bad luck with the lens caps.

originally posted by: Aleister
More probes please.

*snaps on rubber glove*
*unwraps probe*
*makes 'come hither' motion to Aleister with index finger*