Venera 14
Soviet Venus probe that landed and analyzed surface soil.
Venera 14 (also known as Venus 14) was a Soviet spacecraft from the Venera series sent to study Venus. It was launched on 4 November 1981, five days after its twin, Venera 13, and was built to use the 1981 launch window to Venus. Both probes had an on-orbit dry mass of 760 kg.
The spacecraft had two main parts: a cruise stage and a descent lander. As the cruise stage flew past Venus, it acted as a relay for the lander’s data before moving into a heliocentric orbit. It carried instruments including a gamma-ray spectrometer, a UV grating monochromator, electron and proton spectrometers, gamma-ray burst detectors, solar wind plasma detectors, and two-frequency transmitters, which took measurements before, during, and after the Venus flyby.
The descent lander was a sealed pressure vessel holding most of the electronics and instruments. It sat on a ring-shaped landing platform with an antenna on top. Like the earlier Venera 9–12 landers, it carried tools for chemical and isotopic analysis, monitoring scattered sunlight, and recording electrical discharges during descent. On the surface, it used a camera system, an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer, a screw drill and surface sampler, a dynamic penetrometer, and a seismometer. Its full instrument list included accelerometers, thermometers, barometers, a spectrometer and directional photometer, an ultraviolet photometer, a mass spectrometer, a penetrometer and soil ohmmeter, a chemical redox indicator, two color telephotometer cameras, a gas chromatograph, a radio and microphone and seismometer, a nephelometer, a hydrometer, X-ray fluorescence spectrometers for aerosol and soil, a soil drilling apparatus, a stabilized oscillator and Doppler radio, and small solar batteries.
After launch and a four-month cruise, the descent vehicle separated from the bus and entered Venus’s atmosphere on 5 March 1982. A parachute opened after entry and was released at about 50 km altitude, with air braking used for the final descent. The lander landed at 13.25°S 310°E, about 950 km southwest of Venera 13, near the eastern flank of Phoebe Regio on a basaltic plain.
The lander’s quartz camera windows were protected by lens covers that popped off after landing, allowing it to take surface images. It also carried a soil probe to measure soil compressibility, but the lens caps fell exactly where the probe was supposed to enter the groun
- Launch date
- 4 November 1981 at 05:31:00 UTC
- Landing date
- 5 March 1982
- Landing site
- 13.25°S 310°E, near eastern flank of Phoebe Regio
- On-orbit dry mass
- 760 kg (1,680 lb)
- Lander lifespan
- At least 57 minutes (planned 32 minutes)
- Surface temperature
- 465 °C (869 °F)
- Surface pressure
- 94 Earth atmospheres (9.5 MPa)
Lore & Background
Venera 14 was launched five days after Venera 13, on 4 November 1981 at 05:31:00 UTC. After a four-month cruise to Venus, the descent vehicle separated from the bus and plunged into the Venusian atmosphere on 5 March 1982. A parachute deployed after entry and was released at about 50 kilometres altitude, with simple air braking used for the final descent. The lander carried instruments including cameras, an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer, a screw drill and surface sampler, a dynamic penetrometer, and a seismometer. The quartz camera windows were protected by lens covers that popped off after descent, allowing Venera 14 to capture images of the surface. By unfortunate chance, the lens caps came to rest at the exact point the surface soil probe was due to enter and analyse the soil; thus, instead of the soil, the probe measured the compressibility of the Venera 14 lens cap. Surface soil composition samples were determined by the X-ray fluorescence spectrometer and shown to be similar to oceanic tholeiitic basalts. The lander also carried acoustic microphones that recorded atmospheric noise, later used to calculate the average surface wind speed as between 0.3 and 0.5 metres per second.
Reader's Guide
Venera 14 was a key mission in the Soviet Venera program, providing direct measurements of Venus's surface and atmosphere. Its lander functioned for at least 57 minutes in extreme conditions—465 °C and 94 Earth atmospheres—exceeding its planned 32-minute lifespan. The mission returned valuable data: soil composition similar to oceanic tholeiitic basalts, wind speed measurements from acoustic recordings, and color images later processed by American researcher Don P. Mitchell using raw original data. The spacecraft bus continued in a heliocentric orbit, making X-ray and gamma ray observations, and its engine was activated on 14 November 1982 to provide data for later Vega program missions. The last published data for the probe is dated 16 March 1983. Venera 14's legacy includes its role in understanding Venusian geology and atmosphere, despite the lens cap incident that prevented soil compressibility measurements.
Did You Know?
- Venera 14's surface soil probe accidentally measured the compressibility of its own lens cap instead of the soil.
- The lander functioned for at least 57 minutes, exceeding its planned 32-minute lifespan.
- Acoustic microphones on Venera 14 recorded atmospheric noise used to calculate average surface wind speed as 0.3–0.5 m/s.
- The spacecraft bus activated its engine on 14 November 1982 to provide data for later Vega program missions.
More in Derelict landers 1-24
Spotted an error? Know more?
This is a living reference — every entry is fact-audited, and reader corrections feed straight into our audit queue. Suggest an edit · See this site's audit record