Venera 13 Lands On Venus And Records First Sounds

On 1 March 1982, the Soviet Venera 13 lander plunged down into Venus' atmosphere.

With parachutes and aitbraking, it reaches the planet's surface and continues to send data for 127 minutes.

It was the first recording of sound son another planet

Venera 13 on-board experiments

The Venera 13 mission consisted of a cruise stage and lander. The cruise stage mainly acted as a data relay for the signals of the lander.

venera 13 lander

The on-board experiments were very similar to those on the Venera 9-12 landers.

When the Venera 13 lander descended, it had cameras to take pictures of the ground and spring-loaded arms to measure the compressibility of the soil.

After landing it took more picture of its surroundings. It also drilled a sample and analysed it in a hermetically sealed chamber with the help of a X-ray fluorescence spectrometer.

First sound recording on another planet

To measure the wind speeds, the Venera 13 also had a microphone onboard. So with that feat, the Venera 13 produced the first sound recording on another planet.

Signs of life?

Russian scientist Dr. Ksanfomality claimed that the Venera 13 showed footage of extratererestrial life.

Analysing several of the images retrieved by the space craft showed foreign objects like a disk or scorpion;

venera 13 scorpion sighting

 These claims were later refuted.

Venera 14

It's sister spacecraft, launched and landed 5 days later on 5 March 1982.


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