Сугар гаригийн эрс тэс халуун нөхцөлд төлөвлөсөн хугацаанаасаа даруй дөрөв дахин удаан ажилласан уг хөлөг гаригийн гадаргын анхны өнгөт гэрэл зургийг илгээжээ.
1982 оны гуравдугаар сарын 1-нд Зөвлөлтийн Venera 13 хөлөг Сугар гариг дээр амжилттай газарджээ. Уг хөлгийг ердөө 32 минут ажиллахаар тооцоолж байсан ч гаригийн Цельсийн 465 хэм хүрдэг халуун болон асар их даралтыг тэсвэрлэн 127 минутын турш мэдээлэл дамжуулсан байна. Энэхүү үзүүлэлт нь тухайн үедээ төлөвлөсөн хугацаанаас хол давсан амжилт байв.
Газардагч модуль нь гадны эрс тэс нөхцөлөөс хамгаалах битүүмжилсэн даралтат савны дотор байрлах камер, спектрометр, өрөмдлөгийн төхөөрөмж болон сейсмометрээр тоноглогдсон байжээ. Venera 13 гаригийн гадаргуу дээрх чулуулгийн дээжийг авч, дотоод камертаа шинжилсэн бөгөөд уг дээж нь дэлхийн лейцит базальттай төстэй болохыг тогтоосон байна.
Уг хөлгийн хамгийн онцлох ололт нь Сугар гаригийн гадаргууг харуулсан анхны өнгөт панорам гэрэл зургууд юм. Эдгээр зурагт гаригийн гадаргуу нь улбар шар-хүрэн өнгийн өнцөгтэй чулуулгууд болон сул шороон материалаар хучигдсан байдалтай харагддаг. Гэвч гаригийн өтгөн үүлэн давхарга цэнхэр гэрлийг шүүдэг тул зургийн “жинхэнэ өнгө”-ийг тодорхойлоход хүндрэлтэй байдаг байна.
Venera 13-ын гүйцэтгэсэн судалгаа нь гаригийн гадаргуугийн физик шинж чанар, найрлагын талаар үнэ цэнтэй мэдээлэл өгчээ. Хэдийгээр NASA болон бусад эрдэм шинжилгээний байгууллагуудын мэдээлэлд гаригийн гадаргуугийн температур, даралтын хэмжээнд бага зэргийн зөрүү гардаг ч бүх эх сурвалж уг хөлгийн 127 минут ажилласан гэдэгтэй санал нийлдэг. Энэхүү амжилт нь хожим хөөргөсөн Venera 14 хөлгийн 57 минут ажилласан амжилтаас ч хол давсан үзүүлэлт болжээ.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
↓Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
When Venera 13 reached the surface of Venus on March 1, 1982, the Soviet lander was expected to remain operational for little more than half an hour. Instead, it kept transmitting for 127 minutes, sending back photographs, atmospheric measurements and data from a drilled surface sample before communication ended.
The spacecraft had been designed for a surface lifetime of 32 minutes. NASA later described its endurance as “far beyond the planned lifetime of 32 minutes.”
Venera 13 left Earth on Oct. 30, 1981, aboard a Proton rocket. The lander separated from its parent spacecraft on Feb. 27, 1982, then entered Venus’s atmosphere for a descent lasting roughly an hour. It touched down at 03:57:21 UT, at about 7.5 degrees south latitude and 303 degrees longitude.
Venera 13 descends through Venus’s atmosphere
The lander was built around a sealed pressure vessel that protected its electronics and instruments from the extreme conditions outside. Its equipment included cameras, a spectrometer, a drill and sampler, a penetrometer and a seismometer, according to the Lunar and Planetary Institute’s mission summary.
During atmospheric entry, Venera 13 deployed a parachute to slow its descent. At an altitude of about 47 kilometers, the parachute was released and aerodynamic braking carried the spacecraft the rest of the way toward the ground.
The landing site was just east of Phoebe Regio, in terrain described as exposed bedrock surrounded by dark, fine-grained material. Once on the surface, Venera 13 began transmitting measurements and images to the passing spacecraft bus, which relayed them toward Earth.
For more than two hours, it continued sending data despite temperatures and pressures severe enough to place enormous thermal and mechanical stress on the spacecraft.
Cameras send the first color views from the Venusian surface
Among the mission’s best-known results were the first color photographs returned from the surface of Venus. Earlier attempts by Venera 11 and Venera 12 had failed to produce comparable color imagery. Venera 13’s camera system used red, green and blue filters to build views of its surroundings.
NASA records eight panoramas showing orange-brown angular rocks and loose surface material. The Lunar and Planetary Institute also describes eight panoramas, providing an almost complete color view around the spacecraft.
A Space.com report of the mission counts the imagery differently, reporting 14 color photographs and eight black-and-white images. The totals vary depending on whether individual images or assembled panoramas are counted.
The scene was described soon after the mission. Space.com cites a March 1982 Science News report that said: “The [Venera 13] landing site appears smooth but broken, and topped around the lander itself by abundant debris of various sizes.”
Interpreting the colors was less straightforward. The same account notes that determining the “true color” of the surface is difficult because Venus’s cloud cover filters blue light before it reaches the ground.
The cameras also captured parts of the spacecraft and nearby rocks. According to the Lunar and Planetary Institute, the system could resolve features only a few millimeters across at close range.
Venera 13 drills into the ground and analyzes a sample
Venera 13 did more than photograph its surroundings. A mechanical drilling arm reached into the ground, collected material and transferred the sample into a sealed chamber for analysis.
The Lunar and Planetary Institute report says the chamber was kept at approximately 30°C and a pressure of about 0.05 atmospheres. An X-ray fluorescence spectrometer inside measured the sample’s chemical composition.
NASA described the material as similar to terrestrial leucitic basalt, with a high potassium content. The Lunar and Planetary Institute uses a different geological classification, placing it in a group of weakly differentiated melanocratic alkaline gabbroids.
Another experiment tested the physical properties of the surface. Space.com quotes NASA’s assessment: “The results showed that the surface characteristics correspond to compacted ash material such as volcanic tuff [rock].”
The lander therefore photographed, sampled and mechanically tested material at the same site during its 127 minutes of operation.
Mission records differ on exact temperature and pressure
Surviving mission summaries give slightly different figures for conditions at the landing site.
NASA’s Deep Space Chronicle reports a surface temperature of 465°C and a pressure of 89.5 atmospheres. The Lunar and Planetary Institute gives 457°C and 84 Earth atmospheres.
Both sources, however, put Venera 13’s surface operation or transmission time at 127 minutes after landing.
Its nearly identical companion spacecraft, Venera 14, had launched five days after Venera 13. It later reached Venus and returned data from the surface for 57 minutes, compared with Venera 13’s two hours and seven minutes.
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