Venus: a technological black hole or a testing ground for innovation?

Venus: Graveyard or Treasure?

For most people, space and the 20th century are associated with the first human flight around Earth and the Moon landing. However, overshadowed by these truly monumental events are equally, if not more, significant achievements: the Venusian expeditions, the first of which launched just a few months before Yuri Gagarin's historic flight. The vast majority of these missions were organized by Soviet scientists, which is why Venus is still considered the most "Russian" planet in the Solar System worldwide.

The significance of the Venusian expeditions is evident in their scale. Just think about it: 16 automatic "Venera" spacecraft, 1 probe, and 2 "Vega" missions in just 14 years! Three "Venera" missions heroically perished under immense pressure, one lost contact and vanished without a trace in the depths of space, yet the overwhelming majority of the spacecraft reached their destination and provided valuable information about the soil, atmosphere, and external appearance of the planet's surface. Even these fortunate missions fulfilled their duty to Soviet and global science at the cost of their lives: ground-based devices operated for only two hours, balloon probes for two days, and orbital spacecraft for several months to a few years.

If we set aside the particularly extreme conditions on Venus (with an average temperature of 470°C and a pressure of 90 Earth atmospheres), the fate of any space research technology is generally similar: all these expensive machines, filled with the most advanced electronics of their time, always head to their destination with a one-way ticket.

Today, when it is often said that space technologies should be profitable, it is quite natural to question the feasibility of such expeditions, especially those to Venus—a planet that, apparently, will never be visited by humans.

Alternative Earth Development Scenario

One compelling reason for continuing Venusian research, according to scientists, is the attempt to answer the question of why the developmental paths of sister planets, Venus and Earth, diverged.

Indeed, the two closest planets in the Solar System formed from the same material, roughly at the same time, and receive approximately the same amount of solar energy. They have nearly identical mass and size. They should ideally develop in a similar direction, yet in reality, Venus is an entirely different world. While the blue glow of Earth conceals an ocean of life, the deceptive blue light of Venus hides an ocean of death.

– One hypothesis shedding light on the difference between Venus and Earth suggests that something occurred on Venus that destroyed the planet's favorable climate, transforming it into the hell we know from automatic probes. There is a theory that life itself was once transferred to Earth from Venus, – says the expert.

Modern science knows of microorganisms capable of surviving in a vacuum, such as tardigrades. They can enter a state of dormancy and endure conditions inhospitable to life for several months. From this perspective, microorganisms could have "migrated" to Earth within meteorites—perhaps fragments that broke off from Venus. This hypothesis also explains why Venus rotates so slowly on its axis: a Venusian "day" lasts more than 243 Earth days. If Venus experienced a collision with some large celestial body that affected its rotation speed and halted the development of life on the planet, its fragments could have scattered in various directions, bringing remnants of Venusian microfauna to Earth.

– The scientific significance of studying Venus in this context lies in the opportunity to reconstruct the events that transpired on the planet and, through the lens of Venusian history, examine our own home: could something similar happen to us, and if so, how can we prevent it? – notes Ivan Rudoy.

Catalyst for Technological Progress

This is not the only reason to continue conquering Venus. Any challenging task faced by humanity stimulates us to devise new solutions and advance technologies. It is well-known that one of the strongest accelerators of progress has been wars: without the "hot" and "cold" wars of the 20th century, we would not have atomic power plants, the internet, satellite communications, or jet aircraft.

However, the wars of the 20th century brought chaos and destruction, resulting in the loss of millions of lives. Space exploration is a much more humane method of scientific and technological advancement, similar to how the Olympic Games and international sports competitions provide a more humane and fruitful alternative to inter-national rivalry.

In this sense, Venus serves as both an excellent impetus for developing new devices and an ideal testing ground for their application. It presents a challenge to humanity.

A prime example is the development of high-temperature electronics capable of operating under the extreme temperatures and pressures of the Venusian climate. Such electronics have already been created and have demonstrated their functionality, albeit in laboratory conditions. However, without Venus, humanity would never have made strides in this direction.

This electronics, combined with other devices, materials, and mechanisms capable of functioning on Venus, could later be applied to study extreme environments on Earth itself: within volcanic craters, in the Mariana Trench—a zone of exceptionally high pressure, in nuclear reactors, during fires, and in other extreme situations.

Venus also offers a vast field for applying artificial intelligence technologies. The reality is that due to the great distance between the planets, remotely controlling machinery is, to say the least, not very efficient: several minutes elapse between a command from an operator on Earth and its execution on Venus. While this is not critical for orbital spacecraft, it can lead to disasters for aircraft studying the planet's atmosphere.

Until now, only unmanned balloons have been used to study Venus's atmosphere; however, this method is no longer suitable for systematic and comprehensive research. Scientists see the solution in launching self-managing drones (both traditional helicopter-plane types and balloons equipped with engines), whose routes are determined by artificial intelligence: within a broader strategy, it assigns tasks to specific UAVs with the aim of achieving maximum scientific results while minimizing risks to the equipment.

Venus retains its scientific potential, a fact recognized by scientists worldwide. While in the past century, missions to this enigmatic planet were primarily launched by the Soviet Union, in the near future, research apparatus from the USA, the European Union, India, and possibly China will accompany Russian spacecraft to Venus. The scientific and technological race for Venus is just beginning.

This material was prepared with the support of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia.