science

Venera 11

Venera 11 is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Venera 11 rather than just read about it. In short: The Venera 11 (Russian: Венера-11 meaning Venus 11) was a Soviet uncrewed space mission which was part of the Venera program to explore the planet Venus. Venera 11 was launched on 9 September 1978 at 03:25:39 UTC.

Key takeaways

Venera 11 belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Venera 11 to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Venera 11 from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Venera 11 (Russian: Венера-11 meaning Venus 11) was a Soviet uncrewed space mission which was part of the Venera program to explore the planet Venus. Venera 11 was launched on 9 September 1978 at 03:25:39 UTC. Separating from its flight platform on December 23, 1978 the lander entered the Venus atmosphere two days later on December 25 at 11.2 km/s. During the descent, it employed aerodynamic braking followed by parachute braking and ending with atmospheric braking. It made a soft landing on the surface at 06:24 Moscow Time (03:24 UT) on 25 December after a descent time of approximately 1 hour. The touchdown speed was 7 to 8 m/s. Information was transmitted to the flight platform for retransmittal to Earth until it moved out of range 95 minutes after touchdown. Landing coordinates are 14°S 299°E.

Flight platform After ejection of the lander probe, the flight platform continued on past Venus in a heliocentric orbit. Near encounter with Venus occurred on December 25, 1978, at approximately 35,000 km altitude. The flight platform acted as a data relay for the descent craft for 95 minutes until it flew out of range and returned its own measurements on interplanetary space. Venera 11 flight platform carried solar wind detectors, ionosphere electron instruments and two gamma ray burst detectors – the Soviet-built KONUS and the French-built SIGNE 2. The SIGNE 2 detectors were simultaneously flown on Venera 12 and Prognoz 7 to allow triangulation of gamma ray sources. Before and after Venus flyby, Venera 11 and Venera 12 yielded detailed time-profiles for 143 gamma-ray bursts, resulting in the first ever catalog of such events. The last gamma-ray burst reported by Venera 11 occurred on January 27, 1980. List of flight platform instruments and experiments:

30–166 nm Extreme UV spectrometer Compound plasma spectrometer KONUS Gamma-ray burst detector SNEG Gamma-ray Burst detector Magnetometer 4 Semiconductor counters 2 Gas-discharge counters 4 Scintillation counters Hemispherical proton telescope The mission ended in February, 1980. Venera 11 is currently in heliocentric orbit, with perihelion of 0.69 AU, aphelion of 1.01 AU, eccentricity of 0.19, inclination of 2.3 degrees and orbital period of 284 days.

Lander The lander carried instruments to study the temperature and atmospheric and soil chemical composition. A device called Groza was intended to search for lightning on Venus. Both Venera 11 and Venera 12 had landers with two cameras, each designed for color imaging, though Soviet literature does not mention them. Each failed to return images when the lens covers did not separate after landing due to a design flaw. The soil analyzer also failed. A gas chromatograph was on board to measure the composition of the Venus atmosphere, as well as instruments to study scattered solar radiation. Results reported included some evidence of lightning, a high Ar36/Ar40 ratio, and the discovery of carbon monoxide at low altitudes. List of lander experiments and instruments:

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Venera 11

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Venera 11 claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Venera 11 before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Venera 11 ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Venera 11

In research: Venera 11 appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Venera 11 in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Venera 11 is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1978 in spaceflight, 1978 in the Soviet Union, 4V-1, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Venera 11 outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Venera 11 in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Venera 11 means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Venera 11 out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Venera 11 in simple terms?

Why does Venera 11 matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Venera 11?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Venera 11.