#Venera 13

[wallisninety-six]

Only color photos of Venus's surface my beloved

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

Only 4 spacecraft have ever returned images from Venus’ surface. The world next door doesn’t make it easy, with searing heat and crushing pressure that quickly destroy any lander.

In 1975 and 1982, 4 of the Soviet Union’s Venera probes captured our only images of Venus’ surface. The Veneras, which mean “Venus” in Russian, scanned the surface back and forth to create panoramic images of their surroundings. They revealed yellow skies and cracked, desolate landscapes that were both alien and familiar—views of a world that may have once been like Earth before experiencing catastrophic climate change.

Ted Stryk, a philosophy professor at Roane State Community College in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, specializes in reconstructing images from early space missions. Using data from the Russian Academy of Sciences, he has over time reconstructed the best-possible versions of the original Venera panoramas.

VENUS SURFACE PANORAMA FROM VENERA 9 This 1975 panorama from the Soviet Union's Venera 9 probe includes the first images ever taken from the surface of another planet.Image: Russian Academy of Sciences / Ted Stryk

VENUS SURFACE PANORAMA FROM VENERA 10 The Soviet Union's Venera 10 probe captured this panorama of Venus's surface in 1975.Image: Russian Academy of Sciences / Ted Stryk

VENUS SURFACE PANORAMA FROM VENERA 13 FRONT CAMERA The Soviet Union's Venera 13 probe captured two color panoramas of Venus's surface in 1982. This panorama came from the front camera.Image: Russian Academy of Sciences / Ted Stryk

VENUS SURFACE PANORAMA FROM VENERA 13 REAR CAMERA The Soviet Union's Venera 13 probe captured two color panoramas of Venus's surface in 1982. This panorama came from the rear camera.Image: Russian Academy of Sciences / Ted Stryk

VENUS SURFACE PANORAMA FROM VENERA 14 FRONT CAMERA The Soviet Union's Venera 14 probe captured two color panoramas of Venus's surface in 1982. This panorama came from the front camera.Image: Russian Academy of Sciences / Ted Stryk

VENUS SURFACE PANORAMA FROM VENERA 14 REAR CAMERA The Soviet Union's Venera 14 probe captured two color panoramas of Venus's surface in 1982. This panorama came from the rear camera.Image: Russian Academy of Sciences / Ted Stryk

[darsispazio]

Un'ora (intensa) con Venera 9

Sono passati quarantotto anni ma quelle immagini rimangono di straordinario interesse. A colori poi, sono ancora più suggestive!

Sono passati esattamente 48 anni (e un giorno). Era infatti il ventidue ottobre del 1975, quando la sonda sovietica Venera 9 atterrava sulla caldissima superficie di mercurio e riusciva ad acquisire un panorama a 180 gradi (l’immagine in apertura di questo articolo). La sonda era progettata per resistere alle tremende condizioni di pressione e temperatura della superficie del pianeta: in effetti,…

[amanitacz]

Model of the Set of Venera landers (Venera-9 / Venera-10 and Venera-13 / Venera-14) space probe.

Link to see more about this model on Turbosquid.com:

https://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/venera-landers-1865618?referral=amanitacz

Link to the whole gallery:

https://www.turbosquid.com/Search/Artists/AmanitaCZ?referral=amanitacz

Link to the software:

http://www.cazaba.cz/

[deep-space-netwerk]

So Venus is my favorite planet in the solar system - everything about it is just so weird.

It has this extraordinarily dense atmosphere that by all accounts shouldn't exist - Venus is close enough to the sun (and therefore hot enough) that the atmosphere should have literally evaporated away, just like Mercury's. We think Earth manages to keep its atmosphere by virtue of our magnetic field, but Venus doesn't even have that going for it. While Venus is probably volcanically active, it definitely doesn't have an internal magnetic dynamo, so whatever form of volcanism it has going on is very different from ours. And, it spins backwards! For some reason!!

But, for as many mysteries as Venus has, the United States really hasn't spent much time investigating it. The Soviet Union, on the other hand, sent no less than 16 probes to Venus between 1961 and 1984 as part of the Venera program - most of them looked like this!

The Soviet Union had a very different approach to space than the United States. NASA missions are typically extremely risk averse, and the spacecraft we launch are generally very expensive one-offs that have only one chance to succeed or fail.

It's lead to some really amazing science, but to put it into perspective, the Mars Opportunity rover only had to survive on Mars for 90 days for the mission to be declared a complete success. That thing lasted 15 years. I love the Opportunity rover as much as any self-respecting NASA engineer, but how much extra time and money did we spend that we didn't technically "need" to for it to last 60x longer than required?

Anyway, all to say, the Soviet Union took a more incremental approach, where failures were far less devastating. The Venera 9 through 14 probes were designed to land on the surface of Venus, and survive long enough to take a picture with two cameras - not an easy task, but a fairly straightforward goal compared to NASA standards. They had…mixed results.

Venera 9 managed to take a picture with one camera, but the other one's lens cap didn't deploy.

Venera 10 also managed to take a picture with one camera, but again the other lens cap didn't deploy.

Venera 11 took no pictures - neither lens cap deployed this time.

Venera 12 also took no pictures - because again, neither lens cap deployed.

Lotta problems with lens caps.

For Venera 13 and 14, in addition to the cameras they sent a device to sample the Venusian "soil". Upon landing, the arm was supposed to swing down and analyze the surface it touched - it was a simple mechanism that couldn't be re-deployed or adjusted after the first go.

This time, both lens caps FINALLY ejected perfectly, and we were treated to these marvelous, eerie pictures of the Venus landscape:

However, when the Venera 14 soil sampler arm deployed, instead of sampling the Venus surface, it managed to swing down and land perfectly on….an ejected lens cap.

[thererisesaredstar]

Surface of Venus captured by the Venera 13 probe (1982)

[livingforstars]

A Venusian Landscape - September 28th, 1995.

"This computer generated view of a Venusian volcano was created using data from NASA's Magellan spacecraft. Magellan used its onboard radar to map the surface of Venus, which is hidden from telescopic observations by a perpetual cloud cover. Using this radar data to provide three-dimensional information, a computer was then able to produce this view of Maat Mons, a 5 mile high volcano, from a dramatic perspective. The colours used to render the surface are based on earlier colour images transmitted by TV cameras on the Soviet Venera 13 and 14 Venus landers."

[easa-space]

𝗟𝗮 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗲̀𝘁𝗲 𝗩𝗲́𝗻𝘂𝘀. 𝖬𝖾𝗅𝖾𝗄 𝖤𝗅-𝖸𝖺𝗍𝖺𝗋 𝗇𝗈𝗎𝗌 𝗋𝖺𝖼𝗈𝗇𝗍𝖾 𝖺𝗅𝗈𝗋𝗌 𝗌𝗈𝗇 𝖾́𝗍𝗎𝖽𝖾 𝗌𝗎𝗋 𝗅𝖺 𝖯𝗅𝖺𝗇𝖾̀𝗍𝖾 𝖵𝖾́𝗇𝗎𝗌. 𝖤𝗅𝗅𝖾 𝖻𝗋𝗂𝗅𝗅𝖾 𝗍𝖾𝗅𝗅𝖾𝗆𝖾𝗇𝗍, 𝗊𝗎𝖾 𝗇𝗈𝗎𝗌 𝗅'𝖺𝗉𝗉𝖾𝗅𝗈𝗇𝗌, 𝖺̀ 𝗍𝗈𝗋𝗍, 𝗅'𝖤́𝗍𝗈𝗂𝗅𝖾 𝖽𝗎 𝖻𝖾𝗋𝗀𝖾𝗋.

L’infernale Vénus.

Sortez la crème solaire : il fait à la surface de Vénus +470°C.

Il fait chaud, non ? 

Il faut dire que c’est la deuxième planète la plus proche du Soleil, à une distance de 108 millions de km. Mais s’il fait aussi chaud, c’est aussi parce que l’atmosphère de Vénus est composée à 96% de dioxyde de carbone (CO₂), à l’origine d’un puissant effet de serre. C’est-à-dire que ce gaz absorbe les rayonnements infrarouges et retient ainsi l’énergie solaire, ce qui augmente la température de la surface. Vénus est donc une planète inhospitalière. Pourtant, elle est souvent considérée comme la jumelle de la Terre. Toutes deux ont en effet une masse et une taille très semblables, et sont toutes les deux des planètes solides - on dit aussi telluriques, qui vient du mot « terre ». Mais ce sont bien les seuls points communs entre Vénus et la Terre.

Et à l’intérieur ? 

A l’instar de toutes les planètes du Système solaire, Vénus tourne autour du Soleil, en plus de tourner sur elle-même. Elle met 224 jours terrestres pour faire sa révolution, contre 365 jours pour la Terre. En revanche, elle tourne sur elle-même très lentement, en 243 jours. Alors que notre Terre met, elle, 24 heures. De plus, Vénus tourne sur elle-même dans le sens inverse de toutes les autres planètes, on parle de rotation rétrograde. Sur Vénus, le Soleil se lève à l’ouest et se couche à l’est.

Vénus : 4 000 ans de connaissances.

Vénus est la première planète dont la trajectoire a été tracée, il y a 4 000 ans. On trouve des traces de Vénus dans des sources égyptiennes, grecques, babyloniennes ou encore mayas. 

L’observation.

Le premier à l'observer avec un appareil scientifique est Galilée, l’inventeur de la lunette astronomique. Ce physicien italien du 17ᵉ siècle découvre que comme la Lune, Vénus a des phases : son éclairement est différent en fonction de sa position par rapport au Soleil. Cette observation vient confirmer l’hypothèse de l’astronome Copernic : les planètes ne tournent pas autour de la Terre, mais autour du Soleil. Ce modèle, que l’on appelle « héliocentrisme », était alors soutenu par peu de scientifiques, mais il s’est imposé petit à petit grâce aux observations astronomiques.

Percer les nuages de Vénus.

Pas facile d’observer la surface de Vénus au travers de son atmosphère nuageuse et opaque. Pas le choix, si on veut en savoir plus : il faut se rendre sur place. Au total, une vingtaine de sondes ont survolé, tourné autour, ou exploré Vénus. C’est la première planète vers laquelle des engins ont été envoyés, dès 1960. Son exploration s’est faite à tâtons, avec de belles réussites, mais aussi des échecs. La sonde américaine Mariner 2 a survolé pour la première fois Vénus en 1962. 13 ans plus tard, Venera 9, conçu par l’URSS, s’est posé à la surface de la planète infernale. A cause des conditions extrêmes, l’engin n’a survécu que 53 min, mais il a réussi à photographier la zone d’atterrissage.  D’ici quelques années, la NASA projette d’envoyer les sondes DaVinci et Veritas vers Vénus, pour étudier son atmosphère et la composition de sa surface. Ce serait les premières missions américaines vers Vénus depuis le projet Magellan en 1989.

[cepheusgalaxy]

experimental

The OC Masterpost (2.0)

A while ago, someone asked who were my ocs, so I made a big post introducing them. Since then, the post became outdated so i decided to make a new one. They are separated by wip.

main wips

1. Ein [insert links here, we're playing pretend]

2. Meine

3. Totsuka e Megan

secondary wips

4. Trisaster

5. Snow White

6. Little Red Riding Hood Cyberpunk

7. The War Of The Human Throne

8. Unchosen One

9. Across Time and Odds

10. 9 Gates of Hell

11. The Witch's Paladin

12. Rumplestiltskin's Child

coming out eventually

13. Clou & Venera

14. Elysium

wipless ocs

Petrichor - (he/him/it) Witch guy in witch uni. He is a stoic and playful dumbass who thinks he's funny

Jake Valentine - (he/him) You will never hear about him from me but here he is

Gesse Valerie - (they/them) Jake's fuckbuddy

--

so what do y'all think? im not sure if i like the way this is organized

[the-shattering]

Chapter 13: The Feast

The nap only helped Torvola a little. She woke up slightly less exhausted but very hungry. Her stiff joints protested as she sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed. She stood up and stretched, several joints popped satisfyingly as she did so. The afternoon sun shone bright and warm through the frosted window and into her room.

She went to her chest by her bed and pulled out a fresh tunic. The gold embroidery on the hems shimmered faintly in the light and the cloth was as red as the day she bought it. It had been a while since she worn it, years really. She pulled it on; it sat loosely on her frame.

There was a gentle knock on her door before Adren entered, “M’lady? We’re to gather for supper. Her Majesty would appreciate your presence, though she would understand if you wish to have your meal in your quarters.”

“Thank you,” Torvola said, “I’ll be down in a bit.”

***

She forgot how crowded the Great Hall got at meal time. It seemed like everyone in the city had gathered in the large room and the air was stuffy and hot. Torvola stood just inside the entrance to the hall, and she hesitated as she examined the scene before her. Most people were already seated at tables laden with food. She spotted Jamen and his mother at one of the tables near the back of the room. He played with a small toy and looked up to beam at his mother from time to time. It was the happiest she had seen him since the disaster.

“Lady Torvola!”

Torvola turned to see an older man dressed in fine green robes. He had a well kept beard and long grey hair tied into a ponytail. She immediately recognized him as one of the lords from the northern provinces. She schooled her expression to hide her disdain, “Lord Breck.”

“I thought the rumors of your arrival to be untrue, and yet here you are,” he said with a cheerful lilt to his voice. His lips had curled into some approximation of a smile but Torvola noted it didn’t reach his eyes. Oh he had always hated her.

“Indeed, here I am,” Torvola said, “Are you well, m’lord? I see the northern winters haven’t been kind to you.”

His smile faltered, “I’m doing well. Better than you it would seem. Did you tire of living in that backwater?”

“Hardly,” Torvola said, “It was much more interesting than here. Better people too.”

She had given up on politeness with him a long time ago; he was never shy about his disapproval of her and she reciprocated the sentiment. His smile was gone, “So are you here for good or will you run off again?”

“That has yet to be determined,” Torvola said. She stepped into the hall and looked around. Guards were posted along the walls and by the doorways. There was the door that she had entered through and a few smaller doors she knew of that were meant as entries for the servants. At the end of the hall, behind the large and elevated table where the queen would sit, were large windows that went practically from floor to ceiling.

If things were to go wrong, she had at least five ways to exit the room. Four if she didn’t want to deal with crashing through a window. Of course, Venera may expect her to eat at the table up front which would mean the window would be to her back. If someone were to attack …

She shook her head to clear it. Why was she thinking like this? They were in the castle, guards were all around them, she didn’t need to be concerned right? She hadn’t had this level of concern in years. Granted: she hadn’t been in such a crowded place in years. She yearned for her quiet solitude with Saxus.

“Torvola?”

Torvola turned to see Venera standing behind her. She looked as regal as ever with a red flowing dress accented with gold and white embroidered roses. Her brow was furrowed in confusion and concern and Torvola wondered how long she had been standing there.

“Your Majesty,” Torvola said with a slight bow and a tinge of red colored her cheeks, “I’m sorry, my mind was elsewhere.”

“I’m glad you felt well enough to attend our meal,” Venera truly looked relieved, “I heard of what happened at the training grounds.”

Torvola ducked her head, feeling like a kid caught doing something wrong, “Is Guin well?”

“I wouldn’t worry,” Venera said, “Her head’s hard enough to break through our walls.”

“So I’ve heard,” Torvola said with a small smile.

Venera studied Torvola’s face, “How are you feeling?”

Torvola looked away from Venera’s scrutinizing gaze and at the room around her, “It’s been a while since I’ve been in a room with this many people.”

Venera’s face fell, “I’m sorry, I should have realized…”

“It’s fine,” Torvola assured her even though it was very much not fine.

Guin made a reappearance at the dinner; she hardly looked bothered by the noise and bustle of the room. Torvola wondered if her headache had gotten better and she felt relief at seeing the captain up and about. She took a steadying breath and approached Guin, “I’m glad to see you well.”

“You’d have to hit me a lot harder than that to cause me harm,” she said with a cocky grin, “How about you? Is your shoulder alright?”

The corner of Torvola’s mouth quirked upward, “I’ve been hit harder by a falling feather.”

Guin guffawed, “Must have been some feather.”

Torvola felt eyes on her and she looked past Guin to see Uthred staring at her, scrutinizing her. He caught her gaze and looked away, returning to his conversation with Breck. She stared at him for a moment longer and wondered if he was angry at her. What could he possibly be angry about? Guin was the one who challenged her, not the other way around. Guin had opened herself up to the risk of injury the moment she had approached Torvola.

‘If you had been in control though, you wouldn’t have hurt her,’ a small voice in the back of her head piped up.

She knew it was right, she had lost focus and it ended up causing them both injuries. She should have had better control over herself, right? Before she could beat herself up anymore about it, Adren approached her.

“I’ll show you to your seat, m’lady.”

She was sat at the end of the table, close to the small door that the kitchen staff went in and out of. Torvola looked at Venera and wondered if she had chosen this place for Torvola on purpose. If she knew of her concerns. It wasn’t exactly like her habit of scoping out every available exit was new. The noise in the room quieted as everyone took their seats but Torvola’s anxiety abated only slightly. At the very least she could scan the room more effectively.

Her hand spasmed and she looked down to see she had been gripping her fork so tightly that her knuckles had turned white. Slowly she let out a breath and relaxed her hand.

“… we welcome Lady Torvola, Hero of Irozia and Champion of the Iron Rose back to our castle — our home.”

Torvola looked up to see Venera had stood up and was addressing the room. How long had that been going on? Venera was now looking at Torvola and smiling and Torvola felt her heart thudding in her chest. She couldn’t be here.

She just … couldn’t be here.

She stood up abruptly and made her escape, exiting through the side door and leaving the surprised murmurs behind her. She’d apologize to Venera later — she needed to get out. She stalked past the kitchen staff that looked at her in curiosity and confusion. She wound her way through the halls and out one of the doors to the outside. There she sagged against the cool stone wall of the keep and tried to get her breathing under control.

“Are you alright?”

Torvola looked up to see she wasn’t alone — Rheni had joined her outside.

“I suppose I haven’t quite fully recovered from the day’s … excitement,” Torvola said.

“Only from today?” Rheni asked as she leaned against the wall next to Torvola. At Torvola’s look she continued, “You were not suffering alone after all of our battles were over. Venera noticed it … I had noticed it.”

Torvola crossed her arms and stared straight ahead, “It was harder to come back here than I thought.”

“Why?”

It took a long moment for Torvola to answer as she tried to collect her thoughts. She was so damn tired, “Too many people, too much going on … too many memories.”

She thought she had gotten better, she thought that she had gotten over this by now, but the day’s events had quite brutally proved otherwise. It frustrated and angered her to no end. Fifteen years. Fifteen years she had been far removed from the castle and from the war that she had fought to take it. Fifteen years to heal.

And in the past few weeks every single wound she thought had scarred over was ripped open anew. Her mind wandered back to that night on the hill and the sneering face of the Elder.

She wanted to drive a sword through it.

She took a deep breath to try to calm herself, “I don’t think I’ll be returning to the hall tonight.”

“I understand,” Rheni said, “I’ll have food brought up to your quarters.”

“Thank you, Rheni,” Torvola said as she pushed herself from the wall and stood up, “Let Venera know I’m retiring for the night.”

Rheni nodded and made to leave but hesitated for but a moment. She turned back to Torvola and reached out as if to put a hand on her arm, only to retract her hand when Torvola flinched, “I just want to say to you that you don’t have to fight this alone. Talk to Venera.”

[barbariankingdom]

Clear image of the surface of Venus from Soviet Venera 13 in 1982

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

[mosertone]

The surface of Venus from Soviet Venera 13 in 1982

[rupertbbare]

Image from the surface of Venus. From soviet Venera 13 in 1982

[cal-1maf]

I guess there's some buzz about the OceanGate CEO wanting to make a floating colony on Venus, and a lot of people are (rightfully) pointing out what a waste of resources this is.

But the concept of a cloud city there goes way back and there are some compelling reasons for that.

Venus' surface is hot: 475 C or 900 F depending on your measurement system of choice. This heat creates a shit ton of pressure (well, 75 atmospheres specifically) as well. The longest lasting probe we sent was the Soviet Union's Venera 13, which lasted for 127 minutes before being crushed and melted. It sent back color photos, by the way.

So, the surface is clearly a no-go. But that high pressure and the makeup of the atmosphere (mostly CO2, tiny amount of oxygen and actually a decent amount of nitrogen) means that breathable air would act as a lifting gas, like hydrogen or helium on Earth.

On top of that, around 55 km above the surface, the atmosphere's pressure, temperature, and gravity is very similar to that on Earth's surface! Its cloud cover reflects much of the solar radiation that hits it and absorbs a lot of what's left (Earth is protected by a magnetic field) A cloud city there... would actually be pretty ideal. I wouldn't necessarily want to be living in one if a storm hit, but that's a surmountable problem (something something handwave handwave). This is actually a more hospitable environment than Mars, which is quite cold most of the time and the atmosphere is so thin any habitat would need to be very pressurized. Mars doesn't have a magnetosphere to protect it, so its surface is bombarded by solar radiation. Mars also has about a third the gravity of Earth, which could present some significant problems for a colony's longevity because we don't even know if people can carry a pregnancy in lower gravity.

This isn't to say Venus doesn't have issues. First, we still haven't figured out how to maintain a closed, self sufficient ecosystem for any length of time. The ISS relies on a steady supply of resources from Earth. On Venus, this is actually worse than Mars because of something called deltaV. Long story short, to get to Venus from Earth is more expensive in terms of deltaV, and by extension expensive in terms of fuel, and expensive in terms of construction of your craft (because every. single. kilogram. matters in space), than it is to get to Mars.

Second, Venus' atmosphere isn't just toxic: it's corrosive. It's gonna pop your balloons. It's gonna burst your bubble, Guillermo. There may be a solution to this one day, but wow I wouldn't bet 1 life on it let alone the 1,000 Söhnlein wants to send.

One last point in Venus' favor, because this kind of thing is my Special Interest and I like talking about it, is logistical. Optimal transfer windows (times it's good to send a rocket somewhere else) open up from Venus pretty often. On top of that, the deltaV from Venus to anywhere else is lower than from Earth. And it has a lot of nitrogen, which you really need if you want to cultivate agriculture elsewhere in the Solar System not Earth. It would be one of its biggest exports. So we probably have not heard the last of Venus colonies, even if it's a long shot and spearheaded by people who think safety regulations are a suggestion (hate hate hate hate hate that btw).

I only hope if they do send people there, Söhnlein has the guts to go himself. By 2050 Venus will have the opportunity to do the funniest thing a planet's ever done.

[glittertrail]

Happy astromonday!!

Just over sixty years ago Mariner 2 became the first craft to do a planetary flyby past Venus so I thought I'd talk briefly about her today as she is a fascinating place!!

Her orbit around the sun takes 225 Earth days, which is 18 less than the time she takes to spin once (a Venus day), and on top of that, she is upside down (her north axis is at almost 180°) and she spins backwards!! If you were on Venus, you would see the sun rise once every 117 Earth days and over the west horizon. But for reasons below, its unlikely anyone will be standing on Venus!!

Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system, even though Mercury is closer to the Sun. This is because she has an atmosphere comprised of carbon dioxide, which is surrounded by sulfuric clouds, trapping heat from her surface scorched by volcanic eruptions. Her surface is a constant temperature of around 475°C (900°F), unlike Earth where we have climates and seasons. The clouds also contribute to atmospheric pressure 90 times more than Earth's. It's double the pressure of being at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, a mile underwater!! In addition, winds in her atmosphere are very fast, especially at the equator.

The winds combined with her volcanoes, her high temperature, and her air pressure, mean she's known as 'Earth's evil twin'!! As you can imagine she is very hard to visit, but the picture today is from Venera 13, a mission that landed on her in 1982. It's a composite of the surface of Venus. The sky is so yellow!!

I may have a little more on Venus next week, until then I hope you have a fantastic day!! 🪐

my face reading all of this: ❗❗❗

that's, insane, i think we sorta forget how crazy anything in space is bc we don't think about the numbers or the comparisons with things closer to home like the mariana trench, being the evil twin has its perils but she's definitely hotter... In all senses of the word lol

happy astromonday juno 💖 hope you're having a good one 🐞🐞