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The lag time between Earth and Mars is anywhere between 3 and 22 minutes when Earth and Mars are clostest and farthest away from each other in their orbits

And just to make matters worse, you've got to deal with some serious high-gain amplification to "dial them up". Beaming cable over a satellite's easy -- sending it millions of miles away means a lot more power (a scarce commodity on a satellite to begin with) or a much more sensitive antenna on the recieving end. I don't know what the current data transmission rates with the things we sent to Mars, but for reference, the Magellan probe back in the 90's had a transmission rate of 115 - 268.9 kilobits/sec.

It is really amazing to consider that we now have a "spy" satellite orbitting Mars relaying images of the surface back to us on Earth, and that it's sensors are good enough to show us photos of the landing of the rover on the surface. Just incredible. But this technology is still in its infancy -- we've still got decades before we land a man on the planet. This is an amazing page about the Soviet exploration of Venus that may also be of interest.

Do you suppose that, given that the first of the series of probes was launched February 12, 1961 (though the first moderately successful one wasn't until October 18, 1967), and the last arrived at Venus on October 18, 1983, he just might be referring to the whole series of missions, rather than making the rather ridiculous claim that a single probe had been in operation there for two decades? Oh, and while we're at it, here's a link to the "only actual photo we have of the surface", as taken by Venera 9, 10, 13, and 14. Funny how it took four successful landers to "return a single horizon-to-horizon image before crapping out", isn't it?

Duh.

I cannot help but post a link to this site about the Soviet missions to Veus, it is absoluely amazing and the level of detail about the engineering is incredible. This guy's even gone through the trouble of reprocessing the original data sent from the cameras to produce sharper more accurate images of the surface; fantastic.

I cannot help but post a link to this site about the Soviet missions to Veus, it is absoluely amazing and the level of detail about the engineering is incredible. This guy's even gone through the trouble of reprocessing the original data sent from the cameras to produce sharper more accurate images of the surface; fantastic.

Slight clarification, after re-reading the link I just posted:

The Americans used pretty standard television technology for their cameras. The Russians developed a slightly different technology - still based on the 'cathode/anode tube thingy' idea, but with more sensitive equipment and a pan-n-scan technique for sending photos back. The cathode tube thingy (Photoelectron Multiplier Tube) would scan across the photo film, so that the entire image could be scanned a piece at a time, and with better clarity.

Read the above link for more info, it's pretty cool stuff. The site has quite a bit of interesting information on the Russian space program, including some enhanced and reprocessed images of Venus (previously seen on /.)

Slight clarification, after re-reading the link I just posted:

The Americans used pretty standard television technology for their cameras. The Russians developed a slightly different technology - still based on the 'cathode/anode tube thingy' idea, but with more sensitive equipment and a pan-n-scan technique for sending photos back. The cathode tube thingy (Photoelectron Multiplier Tube) would scan across the photo film, so that the entire image could be scanned a piece at a time, and with better clarity.

Read the above link for more info, it's pretty cool stuff. The site has quite a bit of interesting information on the Russian space program, including some enhanced and reprocessed images of Venus (previously seen on /.)

Not urban legend.

Check out the cameras used on Russian probes. They used a film camera, then 'standard' television technology to scan the picture and send it back. Not sure what the Americans used, but was probably pretty similar.

Anyway, as reported by the BBC, American scientist Don Mitchell found the original Soviet Venera probe data from the surface of Venus and he applied modern image processing techniques to it to produce some stunning new pictures.

He also has a really fantastic site about the Soviet Venera probes.

Rich.

Anyway, as reported by the BBC, American scientist Don Mitchell found the original Soviet Venera probe data from the surface of Venus and he applied modern image processing techniques to it to produce some stunning new pictures.

He also has a really fantastic site about the Soviet Venera probes.

Rich.

Anyway, as reported by the BBC, American scientist Don Mitchell found the original Soviet Venera probe data from the surface of Venus and he applied modern image processing techniques to it to produce some stunning new pictures.

He also has a really fantastic site about the Soviet Venera probes.

Rich.

The engineering requirements were absolutely insane - 170g on re-entry, jetisoning parachutes - then falling free for 50 miles through the atmosphere to land without a parachute. And when it gets there:

Conditions were 90 atm pressure and 455 C (851 F).

This is also intriguing:

While never deployed, a seismometer and thermopile battery were developed and tested, capable of operating indefinately on the surface of Venus.

I'm amazed that "nothing can last long on the surface of venus" is a myth - there seems to be no technical reason that we couldn't have instruments there permanently. This page also talks of electronics capable of surviving the heat - and that the landers interior was cooled by liquid lithium down to 60 degrees C. Then they lost contact only because the *relay* satelites weren't in a permanent orbit - not because the probes failed.

I'm in awe of the engineering that went into making these probes so robust - and this was before I was even born! NASA needs to think a little more like this if they're not going to have accidents getting to the moon permanently.