Good night, Giktimes. Today we decided to recall an important event that happened exactly 47 years ago, on October 18, 1967. On this day, for the first time in history, the interplanetary station Venera-4 managed to make direct measurements of the atmosphere of another planet and transfer them to Earth.

As Captain Evidence suggests, this was not the first device sent to study the second planet of the Solar System. Prior to this, there were transit Venus-1 and Venus-2, as well as landing Venus-3. But due to the loss of control, even before approaching the planet, the station crashed.


')
With the fourth "Venus" more fortunate. After entering the atmosphere, the descent module regularly separated, and the orbital part continued to transmit telemetric information to Earth until it burned down in the atmosphere.

The module descended by parachute regularly sent information, but did not reach the surface for 93 minutes. At least in the whole form. The fact is that the atmospheric pressure on the surface of Venus was estimated at 10 atmospheres, and engineers laid a double safety margin in the design of the descent module. But already at an altitude of 28 km it crushed. Later it turned out that the calculations turned out to be completely erroneous, and the pressure on the surface reaches as much as 93 atmospheres. However, for the first time in the history of mankind, it was possible to directly measure the temperature, density, pressure and chemical composition of the atmosphere of another planet.



The descent module had to work for about 100 minutes, it was just as much to the equipment that the battery, which was recharged during the flight from the solar panels, fed the equipment. Scientists with high accuracy calculated the temperature on the surface of the planet at 450 degrees Celsius, subsequent measurements gave more accurate data - 475 degrees. One of the branches of hell, not otherwise. Because of such a high temperature and enormous atmospheric pressure, none of the research apparatuses could work on Venus for more than two hours.

The Soviet research program of Venus using automatic interplanetary stations still remains unsurpassed in terms of the results achieved, the amount of data received and the number of vehicles that reached the planet and contributed to the expansion of our knowledge of this red-hot planet (19 pieces). Venus-1 was launched two months before the flight of Yuri Gagarin, and our last unit, which participated in the study of the Morning Star, Vega-2, started almost 24 years later.

Since almost 30 years since then, a lot has happened in our country and in the world, and it was not up to Venus. Today our space program is much more modest, and exploration of the Moon and Mars has a higher priority, which is explained by considerations of exceptionally practical nature - so far these are the most likely candidates for sending manned spacecraft and development. This is not a hellish dusky carbon dioxide inferno, in which, on the last gasp, highly protected devices worked in a few tens of minutes. Nevertheless, they try not to forget Venus, although according to the residual, apparently, principle — the station Venera-D, whose descent module can work on the surface for about one year, is planned to be launched no earlier than 10 years from now.

Due to the extreme climate, Venus is not of serious interest from the point of view of possible colonization, unlike the Moon and Mars. Werner von Braun, an incredibly talented rocket designer, author of the Third Reich rocket program, whose gift bordered on genius, in 1954 predicted that humans would not be able to arrive on Mars before the 1950s. And judging by the trends, his forecast can be incredibly accurate. But this is Mars, an incomparably more simple to master planet than Venus.

Nevertheless, still relatively recently, people actively fantasized about this topic, creating Venus development projects. For example, it was proposed to bombard it with capsules filled with algae, which would multiply and process the carbonic acid that makes up the planet’s atmosphere.



True, on Venus there is not a drop of water. Even if you throw on it somehow some huge comets consisting of ice, then at almost 500 degrees Celsius water will be present exclusively in the form of steam. Many ideas of the development of Venus operated with flying structures, which are in much more favorable conditions in terms of temperature and pressure.















Modern ideas for the construction of residential settlements on Venus are much more modest. For example, here is a flying station, located at an altitude of 50 km, between layers of sulfuric acid clouds and sulfuric acid mist, where the pressure is approximately one atmosphere.





But a small video demonstrating the experience of immersing a balloon in carbon dioxide, which is intended to illustrate the idea of ​​the possibility of creating flying settlements on Venus:

What for?

Given the difficulties of ensuring life on Venus, a quite reasonable question arises: “Why is it even necessary, for which reason to be clumsy?”. There are several reasons.

The first and obvious is the study of the planet. The atmosphere of Venus is characterized by a number of features that put scientists into a dead end. In this case, it is not about abstract scientific curiosity. Since Venus is very close in size to the Earth, the study of the causes and mechanisms of the existence of certain phenomena can help in solving some problems in our country. Here are some of the mysteries of the Venusian climate:

• Before the greenhouse effect, supported by a dense carbon dioxide atmosphere, was Venus so hot?
• Was there ever an ocean on Venus? If so, was there a life in it? (Atmospheric water vapor is estimated to be as low as 0.02%.)
• What is the cause of the geological instability of the surface of the planet? It is estimated that the age of the surface is only 500 million years.
• What is the reason for atmospheric superrotation? Virtually the entire volume of the atmosphere of Venus is involved in one giant hurricane, that is, the entire gas envelope of the planet moves in one direction.
• What is the composition of aerosol particles present in the atmosphere of Venus?
• What is the composition of the "snow" on the tops of the mountains of Venus?
• What is the cause of chemical imbalances in the atmosphere? Hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide were found in the upper layers, which, without a constant source of “make-up”, were to form other compounds as a result of a chemical reaction. In addition, carbonyl sulfide was found, the synthesis of which by the inorganic method is very difficult. All this feeds the hopes of scientists on the existence of microorganisms in the upper layers of the dense Venusian atmosphere, which are the sources of the production of the three above-mentioned gases.

The second reason for the colonization of Venus is the mining of minerals in the asteroid belt, to which Venus can fly faster than from Earth (0.95 years against 1.05). This is due to the higher orbital velocity of Venus due to its proximity to the Sun.

The third reason for the colonization of Venus is to gain experience in creating settlements in extremely unfavorable conditions. For those times when humanity will be able to go beyond the solar system. But it already touched a very distant future.