anth
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# Posted: 11 Sep 2006 16:50
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New Technology reveals Venus - New Soviet Images
I've always had a huge fascination for the planet Venus. Just like i have with Mars.
The difference is, Mars gets all the glory, all the money thrown at it. Mars is easy to get to. Also, it offers an obvious target for mans first planetary colony. Mars gets all the press!
Venus is hellish. Closer than Mars, easier to get to, but 900 degrees F on the surface, it rains sulphuric acid, and its atmospheric pressure would crush you! So, not a nice place to visit probably.
It's easier to engineer space probes to withstand the cold of mars than the dire conditions on venus. Venus is also alot less likely to have life. So, it goes right to the back of the line as far as space science goes.
The Soviet Space program had alot of success at Venus. Very little at Mars though, they never got any lander to the Martian surface successfully. But, at Venus, the Russians hit the jackpot!
The Soviet union, despite the hellish conditions landed several "Venera" landers on venus. The pictures i think were amazing, considering the technology of the day, and the short life span of the landers.
The above images are taken by Venera 13, and 14. They are a technological feat. However, nobody ever realized just how good the Venera's were. Until now.
The images were hampered by the image processing of the day. Now, many years later, a retired Microsoft researcher and Soviet space science enthusiast, "Don Mitchell" has obtained raw data from the Russian Space Agency. Putting it all together Mitchell was able to create a cleaner set of data.
here are the results...
Venera 13's Venus landscape. Hills that were partialy visible in some images are clearly now visible in Mitchells work. Venus looks like a real place at last.
Venera 14 came to rest in a barren desolate landscape. You can really imagine trudging across Venus looking at this image. A B&W image, but somehow it conveys everything i always knew about Venus.
I've rarely been this excited about a couple of images. All my life i've studied the planets, and been so excited when a new lander touched down on another world. I always was a fan of the Soviet venera probes. It's fantastic to see them truly deliver a stunning view of another world all these years later.
Well done Don Mitchell. A truly amazing and inspired piece of work. 
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