60 years ago, the American probe “Mariner-2” made history: it reached 34,000 km from the planet Venus and “collected” data with the help of seven scientific instruments for 43 minutes. NASA was in contact with the probe until January 3, 1963, when “Mariner-2” was at a record distance from Earth: 86 million km.

The launch of Mariner 1 failed, and Mariner 2 was launched on August 27, 1962, traveled to Venus for three and a half months, and made a “flyby” on December 14.

The probe, which weighed 203 kg, was observing clouds in the middle zone of Venus’ atmosphere, clouds that are now known to be composed of sulfuric acid.

Venus – why it is special

More than 40 missions have gone to Venus since the Soviet mission in 1961. The Soviet Union pursued the Venus program vigorously, sending many probes to Venus between 1961 and 1985. NASA has also sent several missions.

The Soviets decided to focus on Venus because it was the closest planet and the missions were easier and especially took less time than if they had chosen more distant destinations. In the West, there were many critics of the expensive Soviet space program, and at home there were many shortages. On the other hand, for many Soviet citizens, the space program was a matter of pride.

The average distance between Earth and Venus is 40 million km, and the maximum distance is 261 million km. The minimum distance is reached once every 600 days and is 38 million km.

In the 1950s, some scientists believed that Venus was covered with jungles and oceans, but this is not the case: Venus is the driest planet in the solar system.

Venus is the closest planet to Earth and most similar to it in terms of mass and structure, so it is considered its sister. But it has a peculiarity: due to a collision with an asteroid or a comet, Venus rotates around its axis in the opposite direction to the rest of the planets of the solar system.

Because the atmosphere is dense, the Sun is never visible from the planet’s surface, so midday will feel like evening because light barely penetrates through the thick layer of gases.

Venus, named after the goddess of beauty and love, has been shown to have a dense, nearly opaque atmosphere composed mostly of carbon dioxide, and to have an atmospheric pressure nearly a hundred times that of Earth at sea level. In addition, the surface temperature approaches 500 degrees Celsius.

Such extreme conditions pose challenges for space exploration, because anything we send to Venus will be crushed, melted or vaporized in seconds. If we want to collect data on the surface of this abandoned place, we need to send a heat-resistant or extremely fast object there.

Venus is not such a hot place by chance. It has a sinful greenhouse effect caused by carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which traps infrared energy. So, while the planet’s cloud cover reflects most of the visible light received from the Sun, the rocks and soil on the surface absorb what little passes through the cover.