The Flickr Venusiansurface Image Generatr

Posted to accompany my scanned/posted hardcopy of the same image, and to reveal the amazing landscape that was imaged...and revealed by Donald Mitchell.
Bravo Mr. Mitchell!

At/from:

twitter.com/DonaldM38768041/status/1354514221048840194/ph...
Credit: Donald Mitchell/"X" website

“Venera 13, touched down on the surface of Venus at 03:57:21 UT on March 1, 1982. It landed at 7.55° S, 303.69° E on the rolling hills adjacent to Dolya Tessera east of Navka Planitia. Measurements after landing showed that the atmospheric pressure was 89.5 times that of Earth with a temperature of 465° C (although the interior of the lander was kept at a more comfortable 30° C). Immediately after landing, both telephotometers successfully ejected their covers and started scanning the scene. One of the telephotometers was programed to scan the entire 180° scene successively in clear, red, green and blue detectors – a process that would take almost an hour even with the improved data uplink. In order to return at least a fragment of full-color data in the nominal 30-minute design life of the lander, the other telephotometer was programmed to scan the entire 180° scene first through the clear filter followed by scanning just a 60° segment on the right side (where a 9-centimeter-wide color calibration target was deployed) through red, green and blue filters. Both telephotometers repeated this scanning pattern until contact was lost with its carrier passing 36,000 kilometers overhead.”

After transmitting for a record 127 minutes from the surface of Venus (a record which stands to this day), Venera 13 managed to transmit a total of 11 full panoramas and 10 partial ones. The panoramas were combined to fill in gaps from missing data and create full color views. With the Sun 54° above the horizon (the equivalent solar time of 9:10 AM), about 2.5% of the Sun’s light reached the surface to give an overall orange to yellow appearance to the scene due to the lack of bluer wavelengths penetrating the dense atmosphere. The huge improvement in image quality compared to the earlier Venera 9 and 10 panoramas was apparent with objects as small as a fraction of a millimeter visible at the foot of the lander. The landing site, with rolling ridges visible in the distance, was dominated by flat, layered strata with small rocks and fine grain material eroded from the bedrock filling the hollows. The movement of small grains visible at the foot of the lander between successive scans of the telephotometers were consistent with a gentle (if not very refreshing) breeze with a speed of 0.3 to 0.6 meters per second. Venera 14 repeated this feat four days later landing 950 km southwest of its sister on March 5, 1982. Along with the panoramas returned during the 57-minute active life of Venera 14, these images remain the only color views with have of the surface of Venus even four decades later.”

www.drewexmachina.com/2022/03/01/first-pictures-color-vie...
Credit: Andrew LePage/Drew ExMachina website


“Venera 13 Lander image of the surface of Venus. The lander touched down at 7.5 S, 303 E, east of Phoebe Regio, on 1 March, 1982. It survived on the surface for 2 hours, 7 minutes. The lander was equipped with two opposite-facing cameras. The image is a black and white frame of color image vg261_262. The surface is made up of flat, platy rocks and soil. Parts of the lander and semi-circular lens cover can be seen in the image.”

The above paraphrased from:

nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/imgcat/html/object_page/v13_yg06847.html
Credit: NSSDCA website

The view is from camera no. 1 and is of “side A” of the spacecraft.

And…last, but NOT LEAST, the definitive work WRT Venusian surface imagery, by Donald Mitchell:

mentallandscape.com/C_CatalogVenus.htm

mentallandscape.com/V_Venera11.htm

twitter.com/DonaldM38768041/status/1354514221048840194/ph...

LOOK AT THE “X” LINK…I HAD NO IDEA THAT THIS KIND OF SURFACE RELIEF WAS IMAGED…BY ANY OF THE GODLESS MAGGOT’S VENERA LANDERS!!!
DID YOU??? AMAZING!!!
NOR THE MOVEMENT OF GRAINS OF SOIL DEPOSITED ON THE LANDER - DUE TO SURFACE WINDS!!!

Also thanks to Mr. Mitchell: The pentagonal pennant seen affixed to the saw-tooth festooned landing/impact ring, directly under the jettisoned camera lens cover:

mentallandscape.com/V_Pennants.htm

And, while I’m here, regarding the aforementioned saw-tooth features:

“...metal teeth were added to the periphery of the impact ring in an effort to reduce the spin and oscillation during the descent and prevent the rough landings experienced by the 1978 missions.”

Per Huntress & Marov, “Soviet Robots in the Solar System”, p. 322.

🇷🇺 = 👹

“What is Earth’s sister planet like? The face of Venus is hidden by a 15-mile-thick veil of dense clouds, but planetary probes and ground-based instruments provided artist Ray Wilson with enough information for this imaginative glimpse beneath the veil. Some scientists picture the Venusian surface as intensely hot and pock-marked with volcanoes that spew out the ash and carbon which make up the yellowish clouds. Others believe the clouds contain ice and water vapor and areas exist where the climate is temperate enough for living things to survive. Instrument laden American and Russian spacecraft now approaching Venus may clear up the controversy.

Picture Credit: Staff Artist Ray Wilson”

Also affixed to the verso is the local Seattle newspaper’s caption:

“Under the Mysterious Clouds of Venus

THIS MONTH THE UNITED STATES’ Mariner 5 spacecraft and a Russian satellite are scheduled to sweep near the planet Venus to make scientific studies. Both were launched last June. The face of Venus, hidden by a 15-mile-thick veil of clouds, may look something like the scene above. It was drawn by Ray Wilson of the World Book Encyclopedia Science Service based on information from planetary probes and ground-based instruments. Other versions are described in a story on Page 19. And for fascinating reading about the Space Age, including a dialogue between Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and American Astronaut John Glenn, see the special edition of the Northwest Today magazine with today’s Post-Intelligencer.”

The depiction of the Strombolian(?) eruptions is brilliant. From the gradational shadings of the gases within each, to the defined & distinct darker (cooling) volcanic/lava bombs…along with the sprinkling of descending ash(?) streaks (which may be incorrect?). Even if so, who cares, it’s beautifully rendered!!!

Raymond Sheets Wilson. Outstanding. Thank You:

www.celestis.com/participants-testimonials/raymond-sheets...
Credit: Celestis Inc. website

“Imaginary view of Maxwell Montes as seen across the plains of Venus.”

“…On the eastern side of Ishtar the huge Maxwell Montes thrust their peaks high into the Venusian sky. Maxwell was discovered by Earth-based radar. On it is a great circular feature which may be a caldera about 100 km across and 1 km deep which is offset toward the east flank of the mountain some 2 km below the summit. No bright flows radiate from this caldera. The implication is that erosion has smoothed any lava flows. If so, the volcano much be much older than those in Beta Regio. Much of the slopes of Maxwell are, however, bright in the radar images, indicating that they are covered with rocks that scatter the radar signal, probably because the slopes of the mountains are covered with debris. Polarization data indicate that these slopes are rougher than the very rough floor of the fresh lunar-impact crater Tycho, which is the roughest area of the Moon.”

The above is from the photo caption and applicable text from “NASA SP-461: PIONEER VENUS”, appropriately enough & commensurate with the provenance of the photo…co-authored by Mr. Eric Burgess. Pleasantly surprisingly, at the NTRS:

ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19830022069/downloads/1983002...

Impeccable provenance in the form of Eric Burgess. Capped off by it being the work of Rick Guidice.