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The Venera-D mission concept from the Space Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IKI) includes a Venus orbiter that can operate for up to three years, and a lander designed to survive for several hours in the harsh conditions the spacecraft will encounter on the surface of Venus. . |Image source: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Russia is apparently preparing to return to Venus’ scorching surface.
The country hopes to launch Venera-D – a multi-vehicle mission involving a lander, balloon and orbiter – to Venus Russian state media said on Tuesday (March 10) that in 2036.
Venera-D has been in development since 2003, According to Russian Space Network. Once upon a time, Venera-D was even considered before Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 As a possible joint mission with NASA.
While NASA no longer cooperates on Russian space programs (except international space station), Russia is still advancing Venera-D. The mission is said to be part of a suite of robotic spacecraft Russia plans to launch into space. moon and Venus, which “currently occupies a central position in Roscosmos’ ambitions” RoscosmosFirst Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov said in an interview with “Razvechik Daily”, Quote Russian state-run TASS news agency reported on Tuesday.
The new Venus project will continue a series of successful landing missions of Soviet-operated Venus spacecraft in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, and the Soviet Union remains the only country to successfully land and operate a spacecraft in the hellish conditions on the surface of Venus.
“I would like to remind everyone that as early as 1970, our country successfully landed a spacecraft on another planet. solar system. That’s Venus. So we will probably move in that direction first,” Manturov said.
One of Venera-D’s goals is to find microbes Life in the clouds of Venusfollowing recent controversial findings Phosphine and ammonia (possible biomarkers) in a planet’s atmosphere.
The 1970 mission mentioned by Manturov was Venus 7one of four Soviet Venus spacecraft that successfully landed on Venus and sent back photos from its surface, According to the Planetary Society. Venera 7 and other Soviet landing missions successfully withstood temperatures of 900 degrees Fahrenheit (480 degrees Celsius) and surface pressures exceeding 90 times Earth’s pressure at sea level, displaying a yellowish volcanic rock surface (the effect of the sulfuric acid clouds that make up the atmosphere).
The Soviet Union launched more than a dozen missions to Venus in 22 years. Venera 1 and Venera 2 were launched in February 1961 and November 1965 respectively, and were designed to fly by Venus, but did not send back the required data. Venera 3 entered the atmosphere as planned in March 1966, but then fell silent.
The next three in the series, Venera 4 to 6, successfully entered the atmosphere and sent back data in preparation for Venera 7’s first landing attempt, launched in August 1970. Subsequently, the Soviet Union launched nine more lander and orbiter missions to Venus, finally succeeding in 1983 with Venera 16.
NASAthis European Space Agency Japan and Japan have launched multiple orbital missions to Venus over the past few decades, and Russia is not the only country hoping to return to Venus.
Both ESA and NASA have A developing mission; NASA’s VERITAS and DAVINCI projects Just survived a cancellation threat In the U.S. 2026 budget. India plans to dispatch own mission to Venus First liftoff around 2028, where Rocket Lab and MIT hope to launch a private Venus Life Detector spacecraft As soon as this year.
