Landing
The Venera 14 lander was identical to Venera 13 |
|
| Operator | USSR |
|---|---|
| Mission type | Venus Lander |
| Launch vehicle | Venera 14 bus |
| COSPAR ID | 1981-110D |
| Mass | 760 kg |
After launch and a four month cruise to Venus the descent vehicle separated from the bus and plunged into the Venusian atmosphere on March 5, 1982. After entering the atmosphere a parachute was deployed. At an altitude of about 50 km the parachute was released and simple airbraking was used the rest of the way to the surface.
Venera 14 landed at 13°15′S 310°00′E / 13.25°S 310°E / -13.25; 310 (about 950 km southwest of Venera 13) near the eastern flank of Phoebe Regio on a basaltic plain.
The lander had cameras to take pictures of the ground and spring-loaded arms to measure the compressibility of the soil. The quartz camera windows were covered by lens caps which popped off after descent. Venera 14, however, ended up measuring the compressibility of the lens cap, which landed right where the probe was to measure the soil.
The composition of the surface samples was determined by the X-ray fluorescence spectrometer, showing it to be similar to oceanic tholeiitic basalts.
The lander survived 57 minutes (the planned design life was 32 minutes) in an environment with a temperature of 465 °C (869 °F) and a pressure of 94 Earth atmospheres (9.5 MPa). Telemetry had been maintained by means of the orbiting bus that carried signals from the lander's uplink antenna.
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