Venera 13 Descent Craft

Courtesy of NASA's National Space Science Data Center

Launch Date: 1978-09-14

Description

Venera 13 landed at 7° 30 minutes South by 303°, just east of the eastern extension of an elevated region known as Phoebe Regio. It survived for 2 h 7 min in an environment with a temperature of 457°C and a pressure of 89 earth atmospheres. Venera 13 carried instruments to take chemical and isotopic measurements, monitor the spectrum of scattered sunlight, and record electric discharges during its descent phase through the Venusian atmosphere. The spacecraft utilized a camera system, an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer, and a seismometer to conduct investigations on the surface.