Russian Space Program

In the U.S. we are pretty proud of our space program, all the stuff we've done, like send rovers to Mar's and whatnot. But I'll tell you what. If aliens attack the earth and we need to fight them in space, I'm not calling NASA, or Burt Rutan- I'm calling Russia. For most of my life I've assumed that the only stuff Russian has done space wise was either to compete with the U.S. during the cold war time, or to help the U.S. with space station in present time. I stumbled upon the Russian Venus exploration program the other day. First, lets look at the U.S. Venus exploration program. This is the Mariner 2, the first probe to visit Mars (Mariner 1 blew up on the launch pad)

Delicate isn't it?
This is the Pioneer orbiter

Same story (I forget which , but one of these was built from left over parts form a different mission)
We got some good pictures and played around with sensors to find gravitational fields and what not

This is the first Russian probe

Thats more like it- not only can it make it to Venus (granted it took a few tries) it looks bullet proof too.

After something like 12 probes similar to this one, Russia pulled all the stops with this

Vega-2 a 5 ton hulk of metal, sensors, and solar panels.
That sphere on top contains a lander- thats right a LANDER. They sent a massive lander to parachute through the atmosphere and take measurement, including a weather balloon to be launched on the surface.
The landers actauly drilled into the soil with a drill that can only function at 500 degree C, once the metal has expanded, and then transfer the sample into an airlock, where it would be analyzed by an x-ray spectrometer.
Pretty impressive.
This is the lander

Not messing around
And they even got an image of the Venus Surface- I didn't even know we ever managed to get one


for more information http://www.mentallandscape.com/V_Venus.htm