Talk:Venera 13

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[edit] Probe path

"to take advantage of the 1981 Venus launch opportunity" — This article could benefit from a section on the path taken by the probe, explaining why late-1981 was a propitious moment to do the mission. I'm assuming the relative orbits between Earth and Venus were just right. ~ Rollo44 14:11, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

Efficient transfer orbits between Earth and Venus occur every 18 months. That is when Earth and Venus are in a position that can be intersected by an elliptical orbit. The orbit intersects the Earth at its perihelion and Venus at its aphelion. In addition, some of these opportunities are much more energy efficient than others, because of the fairly large releative angle between the planes of the two planets' orbits. That is, different amounts of energy are needed for the component of the velocity vector perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic. DonPMitchell 17:33, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Venus sound record

I can't manage to find any trace of the supposed "loud thunder" recorded on Venus by the Venera 13 probe. Are we sure this information is true?--Sid-Vicious 20:09, 26 Oct 2007 (UTC)

I've looked for this and I cannot find any evidence of it. I removed the claim. The fallacious mention on WP has been cloned by other websites and cited a lot, I wonder if someone put it in just to see how far it'd spread. Notably, the person writing it in felt compelled to mention "Huygens was second" - as though it's some sort of a contest?

Venera 13 ~did~ "record evidence of lightning", but this was done electromagnetically. A simple antenna works just as well and works with a much greater range. But I didn't write that in because I don't have an internet source handy for that either.

-Anonymous Space Nerd

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Oops, here's a source: http://www.mentallandscape.com/V_Venera11.htm

It's not an official source, and doesn't mention any thunder or lightning, but there's a graph of the microphone signal.

-A.S.N. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.20.50.55 (talk) 13:50, 8 February 2008 (UTC)