— Ch. 1 · Engineering The Venus Probe —
Venera 1.
~3 min read · Ch. 1 of 5
Venera 1 stood as a cylindrical body topped by a dome, reaching a total height of 2.3 meters. Engineers pressurized the interior to 105 kilopascals using dry nitrogen. Internal fans circulated air to maintain even heat distribution across the cabin. Two solar panels extended from the cylinder to charge silver-zinc batteries. A parabolic wire-mesh antenna measured 1.7 meters in diameter for sending data back to Earth. This antenna operated on a frequency of 922.8 megahertz. An antenna boom transmitted short-wave signals during the near-Earth phase. Semidirectional quadrupole antennas mounted on the solar panels provided routine contact with ground control. These antennas used a circularly-polarized decimetre radio band. The probe carried scientific instruments including a flux-gate magnetometer attached to the antenna boom. Two ion traps measured solar wind intensity nearby. Micrometeorite detectors and Geiger counter tubes monitored cosmic radiation levels. A sodium iodide scintillator also measured background radiation. An experiment attached to one solar panel tracked temperatures of experimental coatings. Infrared and ultraviolet radiometers may have been included in the payload. The dome contained a KDU-414 engine for mid-course corrections. Motorized thermal shutters achieved temperature control throughout the flight.
Launch Into Winter Skies
Soviet experts launched Venera-1 using a Molniya carrier rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The launch took place at 00:34:36 GMT on the 12th of February 1961. Vehicle L1-6V steered downrange into a clear blue winter sky. Orbit was successfully achieved after liftoff. The spacecraft, along with the rocket's Blok-L upper stage, initially entered a low Earth orbit. The upper stage fired to place Venera 1 into a heliocentric orbit directed towards Venus. The 11D33 engine was the world's first staged-combustion-cycle rocket engine. It marked the first use of an ullage engine to allow a liquid-fuel rocket engine to start in space. This mission followed the failure of its sister ship Venera-1VA No.1. That earlier attempt failed to leave Earth orbit due to a power transformer failure. The transformer was wrapped in foil and painted black and white for thermal reasons. Soviet experts launched this second probe immediately following the first failure. The successful launch placed the craft on a trajectory toward the Red Planet.