Venera 13 Landed on Venus in 1982, Returning 1st Color Photos and Sound Recordings
Updated
Updated · 19FortyFive · Jun 26
Venera 13 Landed on Venus in 1982, Returning 1st Color Photos and Sound Recordings
2 articles · Updated · 19FortyFive · Jun 26
Summary
127 minutes after touchdown on March 1, 1982, the Soviet Venera 13 probe kept operating on Venus—more than four times its planned 30-minute lifespan.
869-degree Fahrenheit heat, roughly 92 Earth atmospheres of pressure and corrosive carbon-dioxide air made Venus the Solar System’s harshest landing site, yet the lander survived with a titanium pressure vessel, heavy insulation and phase-change cooling.
Firsts from the surface included color photographs from another planet and audio recordings of Venusian wind, with later digital processing helping separate ambient sounds from spacecraft noise.
A drilled soil sample analyzed by X-ray fluorescence pointed to basalt- and gabbro-like rock, strengthening the view that Venus has a volcanic surface.
No spacecraft has landed on Venus since the Soviet Venera and Vega missions of the early 1980s, though agencies are developing high-temperature electronics for future landers that could last weeks or months.