Venera 7 Yielded 23 Minutes of Venus Surface Data After 1970 Signal Was Recovered
Updated
Updated · spacedaily.com · Jul 20
Venera 7 Yielded 23 Minutes of Venus Surface Data After 1970 Signal Was Recovered
1 articles · Updated · spacedaily.com · Jul 20
Summary
22 minutes 58 seconds of post-impact radio data were later extracted from Venera 7’s recording, showing the Soviet capsule kept transmitting from Venus’s surface after touchdown on Dec. 15, 1970.
Computer processing separated the weak trace from background noise after ground stations had treated the post-impact portion as unintelligible, turning an apparent communications failure into the first confirmed transmission from another planet’s surface.
17 meters per second was the probe’s estimated impact speed after its parachute likely tore or collapsed; the strong signal vanished at landing, probably because the capsule tipped and left its antenna badly oriented toward Earth.
Earlier Venera 3 through 6 missions had either crashed or stopped transmitting before reaching the ground, so Venera 7’s redesigned 490-kilogram lander was built to survive about 540 degrees Celsius and 150 atmospheres.
475 degrees Celsius and about 90 atmospheres were the mission’s reported surface readings, confirming Venus ground conditions and paving the way for longer-lived Venera 8 and the photo-returning Venera 9 and 10.