Venera 14
Encyclopedia
Venera 14 was a probe in the Soviet
Venera program for the exploration of Venus
.
Venera 14 was identical to the Venera 13
spacecraft and built to take advantage of the 1981 Venus launch opportunity and launched 5 days apart. It was launched on 4 November 1981 at 05:31:00 UTC and Venera 13 on 30 October 1981 at 06:04:00 UTC, both with an on-orbit dry mass of 760 kg.
As it flew by Venus the bus acted as a data relay for the lander and then continued on into a heliocentric orbit. It was equipped with a gamma-ray spectrometer
, UV grating monochromator, electron
and proton
spectrometers, gamma-ray burst detectors, solar wind
plasma detectors, and two-frequency transmitters which made measurements before, during, and after the Venus flyby.
The descent lander was a hermetically sealed pressure vessel, which contained most of the instrumentation and electronics, mounted on a ring-shaped landing platform and topped by an antenna. The design was similar to the earlier Venera 9–12 landers. It carried instruments to take chemical and isotopic measurements, monitor the spectrum of scattered sunlight, and record electric discharges during its descent phase through the Venusian atmosphere. The spacecraft utilized a camera system, an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer, a screw drill and surface sampler, a dynamic penetrometer, and a seismometer to conduct investigations on the surface.
List of lander experiments and instruments:
Venera 14 landed at (about 950 km southwest of Venera 13) near the eastern flank of Phoebe Regio on a basaltic plain
.
The lander had cameras to take pictures of the ground and spring-loaded arms to measure the compressibility of the soil. The quartz camera windows were covered by lens caps which popped off after descent. Venera 14, however, ended up measuring the compressibility of the lens cap, which landed right where the probe was to measure the soil.
The composition of the surface samples was determined by the X-ray fluorescence spectrometer, showing it to be similar to oceanic tholeiitic basalt
s.
The lander transmitted data for 57 minutes (the planned design life was 32 minutes) in an environment with a temperature of 465 °C and a pressure of 94 Earth atmospheres (9.5 MPa). Telemetry ended when the relaying spacecraft moved beyond range of the lander's uplink antenna.
.
researcher Don P. Mitchell has processed the color images from Venera 13 and 14 using the raw original data. The new images are based on a more accurate linearization of the original 9-bit logarithmic pixel encoding.
Soviet space program
The Soviet space program is the rocketry and space exploration programs conducted by the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics from the 1930s until its dissolution in 1991...
Venera program for the exploration of Venus
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows...
.
Venera 14 was identical to the Venera 13
Venera 13
Venera 13 was a probe in the Soviet Venera program for the exploration of Venus.Venera 13 and 14 were identical spacecraft built to take advantage of the 1981 Venus launch opportunity and launched 5 days apart, Venera 13 on 1981-10-30 at 06:04:00 UTC and Venera 14 on 1981-11-04 at 05:31:00 UTC,...
spacecraft and built to take advantage of the 1981 Venus launch opportunity and launched 5 days apart. It was launched on 4 November 1981 at 05:31:00 UTC and Venera 13 on 30 October 1981 at 06:04:00 UTC, both with an on-orbit dry mass of 760 kg.
Design
Each mission consisted of a bus and an attached descent craft.As it flew by Venus the bus acted as a data relay for the lander and then continued on into a heliocentric orbit. It was equipped with a gamma-ray spectrometer
Spectrometer
A spectrometer is an instrument used to measure properties of light over a specific portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, typically used in spectroscopic analysis to identify materials. The variable measured is most often the light's intensity but could also, for instance, be the polarization...
, UV grating monochromator, electron
Electron
The electron is a subatomic particle with a negative elementary electric charge. It has no known components or substructure; in other words, it is generally thought to be an elementary particle. An electron has a mass that is approximately 1/1836 that of the proton...
and proton
Proton
The proton is a subatomic particle with the symbol or and a positive electric charge of 1 elementary charge. One or more protons are present in the nucleus of each atom, along with neutrons. The number of protons in each atom is its atomic number....
spectrometers, gamma-ray burst detectors, solar wind
Solar wind
The solar wind is a stream of charged particles ejected from the upper atmosphere of the Sun. It mostly consists of electrons and protons with energies usually between 1.5 and 10 keV. The stream of particles varies in temperature and speed over time...
plasma detectors, and two-frequency transmitters which made measurements before, during, and after the Venus flyby.
The descent lander was a hermetically sealed pressure vessel, which contained most of the instrumentation and electronics, mounted on a ring-shaped landing platform and topped by an antenna. The design was similar to the earlier Venera 9–12 landers. It carried instruments to take chemical and isotopic measurements, monitor the spectrum of scattered sunlight, and record electric discharges during its descent phase through the Venusian atmosphere. The spacecraft utilized a camera system, an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer, a screw drill and surface sampler, a dynamic penetrometer, and a seismometer to conduct investigations on the surface.
List of lander experiments and instruments:
- Accelerometer, Impact Analysis - Bison-M
- Thermometers, Barometers - ITD
- Spectrometer / Directional Photometer - IOAV-2
- Ultraviolet Photometer
- Mass Spectrometer - MKh-6411
- Penetrometer / Soil Ohmmeter - PrOP-V
- Chemical Redox Indicator - Kontrast
- 2 Color Telephotometer Cameras - TFZL-077
- Gas Chromatograph - Sigma-2
- Radio / Microphone / Seismometer - Groza-2
- Nephelometer - MNV-78-2
- Hydrometer - VM-3R
- X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometer (Aerosol) - BDRA-1V
- X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometer (Soil) - Arakhis-2
- Soil Drilling Apparatus - GZU VB-02
- Stabilized Oscillator / Doppler Radio
- Small solar batteries - MSB
Landing
After launch and a four month cruise to Venus the descent vehicle separated from the bus and plunged into the Venusian atmosphere on March 5, 1982. After entering the atmosphere a parachute was deployed. At an altitude of about 50 km the parachute was released and simple airbraking was used the rest of the way to the surface.Venera 14 landed at (about 950 km southwest of Venera 13) near the eastern flank of Phoebe Regio on a basaltic plain
Plain
In geography, a plain is land with relatively low relief, that is flat or gently rolling. Prairies and steppes are types of plains, and the archetype for a plain is often thought of as a grassland, but plains in their natural state may also be covered in shrublands, woodland and forest, or...
.
The lander had cameras to take pictures of the ground and spring-loaded arms to measure the compressibility of the soil. The quartz camera windows were covered by lens caps which popped off after descent. Venera 14, however, ended up measuring the compressibility of the lens cap, which landed right where the probe was to measure the soil.
The composition of the surface samples was determined by the X-ray fluorescence spectrometer, showing it to be similar to oceanic tholeiitic basalt
Basalt
Basalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually grey to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet. It may be porphyritic containing larger crystals in a fine matrix, or vesicular, or frothy scoria. Unweathered basalt is black or grey...
s.
The lander transmitted data for 57 minutes (the planned design life was 32 minutes) in an environment with a temperature of 465 °C and a pressure of 94 Earth atmospheres (9.5 MPa). Telemetry ended when the relaying spacecraft moved beyond range of the lander's uplink antenna.
Fictional references
Venera 14 is visited by a Russian cosmonaut in BBC's Space Odyssey: Voyage To The PlanetsSpace Odyssey: Voyage To The Planets
Space Odyssey: Voyage To The Planets is a mockumentary about a manned voyage through the solar system. Space Odyssey premiered in 2004 and was made by the BBC...
.
Image processing
AmericanUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
researcher Don P. Mitchell has processed the color images from Venera 13 and 14 using the raw original data. The new images are based on a more accurate linearization of the original 9-bit logarithmic pixel encoding.