Aug 17, 2022
The Soviet spacecraft Venera 7 was launched on 17 August 1970 from Kazakhstan. The mission was considered a success even though the parachute was torn and collapsed few minutes after entering the venus' atmosphere. We will go to into its details after discussing before-launch expectation and after-launch success of the mission.
Designing
The Spacecraft consisted of a lander and an interplanetary bus to carry the lander to Venus.
The lander was built in away to withstand pressure of up to 180 bars and temperatures of 1076 degrees Fahrenheit (or 580 degrees celsius).
Objectives
The Venera 7 mission objectives included returning data from venus' atmosphere, landing, and returning data after the landing.
How Venera 7 made the historic landing?
Venera 7 spacecraft reached Venus in December 1970 after nearly 4 months of challenging journey. It entered the Venus' dense atmosphere on 15th december 1970. The parachute opened at an altitude of 60 km and the analysis of its atmosphere began with data showing the atmosphere to be 97 percent carbon dioxide. But, Six minutes later, The parachute started to disfunction and eventually the probe entered in 29-minutes of free fall before it struck the Venusian surface. The probe seemed to fail completely as no data received after the impact. However, few weeks later, Astronomer Oleg Rzhiga found 23-minutes of faint signals after examining the recorded tapes.
The mission may not be declared a complete success but it accomplished all its objectives and became the first spacecraft to land on another planet.