- Spacecraft have flown to Venus since the 1960s.

In addition, research is underway on this planet and from the Earth.

What do we know today about Venus?

- Venus is considered the sister of the Earth in the solar system.

This is the planet closest to us, the minimum distance to it is about 40 million km, while it is one and a half times closer to the Sun.

Venus could receive twice as much heat from it, but in the end it gets as much as the Earth because of the high reflectivity of its clouds.

Earth and Venus formed 4.5 billion years ago in the same region of the protoplanetary nebula and initially had a similar composition.

They are similar in size, mass, and density.

But for some reason, the development of the "sisters" went along different paths: if on Earth we received comfortable living conditions, then on Venus they can be called hellish.

Due to the greenhouse effect, its surface is heated to 470 ° C, the pressure is 92 atm, about the same as at a depth of one kilometer in the ocean.

Plus, there is no water on Venus.

If all the water contained in its atmosphere is precipitated, a layer with a thickness of only about 3 cm will turn out, while on Earth the same indicator will be 3 km.

A day on Venus lasts 243 Earth days, the year is shorter - about 224 Earth days.

That is, a year on it lasts less than one revolution around its axis.

If the Earth, Mars and Jupiter orbit and rotate along the axis in the same direction, then Venus - in the opposite direction. 

- And almost all of this was established thanks to the probes that landed on the surface of the planet?

- In the pre-space era, until the 1960s, Venus was generally a mysterious planet.

Little could be understood about her from Earth, viewed with the help of telescopes.

The study of the visible areas is difficult due to the layer of sulfuric acid clouds.

  • Automatic interplanetary station "Venera-3"

  • © Alexander Mokletsov

The cloud layer itself has been observed since the time of Lomonosov, but only in 1971 it became clear that it consists of concentrated sulfuric acid.

This is a very difficult planet to explore.

In 1961, the Venera-1 station flew past.

Venus-3 is said to have hit, but it is not known for sure.

We got into the atmosphere of the planet "Venus" from the fourth to the sixth, but could not land because of the high pressure, which then no one suspected, and all these stations were simply crushed.

And already starting with Venera-7, ten successful landings were made.

- Is it only Soviet?

- Yes.

The Americans had successful vehicles, which also received a lot of new interesting information, but they did not land on the surface.

Thus, only our devices were on its surface.

Two more Soviet balloons - "Vega-1" and "Vega-2" - flew in the atmosphere.

That is why Venus is called the “Russian, Soviet planet”.

  • Automatic interplanetary station "Venera-9"

  • © NPO im.

    S. A. Lavochkina

- The other day, the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences announced that Russia is returning to Venus, and the planning of the mission has begun.

But not alone, but together with NASA.

It even sounded that there would be some separate Russian launches.

- Work on technical design began last year, agreements and joint contracts are being concluded with NPO Lavochkina.

Now we expect to carry out about three missions, and the last one involves the return of soil from Venus.

The launch of the Venera-D (Long-Living Venus) mission is scheduled for 2029, and decisions on further work will be made based on its results.

- Tell us about the Venera-D project, it has a complicated history. 

- Since 2009, Venera-D has been developed as a Russian mission.

For a comprehensive study of the atmosphere, surface and surrounding plasma, it is necessary to have several devices, including a landing module and a balloon.

Back in the Soviet Union, an absolutely ideal machine was developed for delivering scientific equipment to the surface of Venus and working within 1-2 hours.

NPO Lavochkina has preserved documentation that can be revised taking into account modern technologies and made such a device - a lander with the most modern set of scientific equipment, with the ability to drill and take soil.

But in 2013, sequestration took place, "Venus-D" was excluded from the program.

At the same time, our project was known in NASA as the Russian flagship mission to Venus.

Then talk began about a joint mission, in the same 2013 a joint scientific working group for the project was created. 

  • Venus-D mission concept

  • © NPO im.

    S. A. Lavochkina

- What is the role of the Americans?

- The rocket, the orbiter and the lander designed for two hours of "life" on the planet are Russian.

American small stations will be attached to our station, which will separate before landing, their service life is already 2-4 months.

We hope that they will allow us to know the weather and other conditions on the planet.

- Have you already decided at what point the landing will be?

- We would like to land a large apparatus at high latitudes, American stations will land in different places, this is necessary for measuring seismicity.

- What is the peculiarity and tasks of American equipment?

“They have high temperature electronics that work at 500 ° C on the surface.

By the way, it was the idea of ​​our group, we offered them, and so they are doing.

Also, the Americans are creating a special balloon with a variable altitude, which will carry more than 100 kg of equipment and explore the cloud layer at an altitude of 50 to 60 km.

- Not so long ago, phosphine gas, a possible biomarker, was found in the atmosphere of Venus.

It turns out that traces of life should be looked for there, and not on the surface or in the depths?

- Rather, yes, in the atmosphere.

You see, our study of the atmosphere and the search for life in it began long before this discovery.

In general, life on Venus can be.

Now the Earth is in the habitable zone, but with a young Sun, which was not so bright, Venus could well be in the habitable zone.

- It turns out that it was not always a hot planet with a poisonous atmosphere?

“Of course it was not a hot planet when it formed.

In the young solar system there were a lot of comets, asteroids, and they constantly bombed the planets, brought water.

There could be water, there could be life.

However, already 2 billion years ago, the oceans could evaporate, under the influence of ultraviolet radiation, water breaks up into two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom.

And since Venus does not have its own magnetic field, these atoms are carried away into space by the solar wind.

  • Flight of the AMS "Venus-D" in the artist's view

  • NASA

For the past half a billion - a billion years, the planet has not had plate tectonics, no earthquakes.

Internal heat is released only by volcanic eruptions.

Hence the sulfuric acid clouds, high pressure.

Venus is 80% flooded with basaltic volcanic lavas, leaving only 20% of the primary surface.

These are mountainous regions, the so-called tessera, where the highest point is Maxwell Mountain, 11 km high.

It is interesting to investigate them, whether they contain granites and other rocks that were formed in the presence of water and the ocean.

Life could have been there, and now it can be, but already in the atmosphere, most likely.

- And now there is a chance that in 2029 we will learn more about it.

- If politics does not intervene.

I would like to do this project with the Americans.

You see, this is a Russian mission with the participation of NASA, and the results are the same, everyone will get it.

- But why has interest in this planet increased?

Such a break is significant - nothing since the 1980s.

- Our last program ended in 1985, then perestroika began.

Where does the money come from?

There was nothing.

The USA has its own system, competitive missions were offered, but flights to asteroids won.

And now they have four possible missions to Venus, but they are all insignificant in comparison with "Venus-D".