Portal:Space exploration/Featured/October 2007

The Venus-1 Automatic Interplanetary Station, or Venera 1, was a 643.5 kg probe launched to Venus by the Soviet Union. It consisted of a cylindrical body 1.05 meter in diameter topped by a dome, totaling 2.035 meters in height. This was pressurized to 1.2 atmospheres of dry nitrogen, with internal fans to maintain even distribution of heat. Two solar panels extended from the cylinder, charging a bank of silver-zinc batteries. A 2 meter parabolic wire-mesh antenna was designed to send data from Venus to Earth on 922.8 MHz. A 2.4 meter antenna boom was used to transmit short-wave signals during the near-Earth phase of the mission.

The probe was equipped with scientific instruments including a flux-gate magnetometer attached to the antenna boom, two ion traps to measure solar wind, micrometeorite detectors, and Geiger counter tubes and a Sodium Iodide scintillator for measurement of cosmic radiation.

Soviet experts launched Venera-1 in two steps, first placing the 7-ton Sputnik 8 into terrestrial parking orbit with a Molniya launcher. From a 229 × 282 km orbit, the automatic interplanetary station was launched towards Venus with a fourth stage engine. This was the first demonstration of the highly efficient maneuver of launching from orbit.

Three successful telemetry sessions were conducted, gathering solar-wind and cosmic-ray data near Earth, at the Earth's magnetopause, and on February 19 at a distance of 1,900,000 km. After discovering the solar wind with Luna-2, Venera-1 provided the first verification that this plasma was uniformly present in deep space. Seven days later, the next scheduled telemetry session failed to occur. On May 19, 1961, Venera 1 passed within 100,000 km of Venus and entered a heliocentric orbit.

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