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Space Earth

After 53 Years, a Failed Soviet Venus Spacecraft Is Crashing Back to Earth 55

Posted by BeauHD from the heads-up dept.
Kosmos 482, a failed Soviet Venus probe, is expected to make an uncontrolled reentry in mid-May after orbiting Earth for 53 years. Gizmodo reports: The lander module from an old Soviet spacecraft is expected to reenter Earth's atmosphere during the second week of May, according to Marco Langbroek, a satellite tracker based in Leiden, the Netherlands. "As this is a lander that was designed to survive passage through the Venus atmosphere, it is possible that it will survive reentry through the Earth atmosphere intact, and impact intact," Langbroek wrote in a blog update. "The risks involved are not particularly high, but not zero."

Kosmos 482 launched on March 31, 1972 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome spaceport in Kazakhstan. The mission was an attempt by the Soviet space program to reach Venus, but it failed to gain enough velocity to enter a transfer trajectory toward the scorching-hot planet. A malfunction resulted in an engine burn that wasn't sufficient to reach Venus' orbit and left the spacecraft in an elliptical Earth orbit, according to NASA. The spacecraft broke apart into four different pieces, with two of the smaller fragments reentering over Ashburton, New Zealand, two days after launch. Meanwhile, two remaining pieces, believed to be the payload and the detached upper-stage engine unit, entered a higher orbit measuring 130 by 6,089 miles (210 by 9,800 kilometers).

The failed mission consisted of a carrier bus and a lander probe, which together form a spherical pressure vessel weighing more than 1,000 pounds (495 kilograms). Considering its mass, "risks are similar to that of a meteorite impact," Langbroek wrote. As of now, it's hard to determine exactly when the spacecraft will reenter. Langbroek estimates that the reentry will take place on May 10, but a more precise date will get clearer as the reentry date nears.

After 53 Years, a Failed Soviet Venus Spacecraft Is Crashing Back to Earth More | Reply

After 53 Years, a Failed Soviet Venus Spacecraft Is Crashing Back to Earth

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  • I think K'smos wants us to send Putin to it, in lieu of The Creator, so he can merge with it and it help it to fulfil its mission, and then fuck off from this planet forever ?

  • We're headed for Venus, but still we stand strong (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Synonymous Homonym ( 1901660 ) on Wednesday April 30, 2025 @04:01AM (#65341791)

    53 years. And it was built to land on Venus, so it is almost certainly going to survive re-entry. There is a ~11/9 chance that it will water in the ocean, and it might survive that, too. Well, as much as a dead probe can survive, anyway. The parachute will probably not open, and most of the ocean is deep enough that the probe might not withstand the pressure.

    This is exciting. Maybe they will collect it and display it in a museum? If they can find it. It is practically lost technology: When was the last time a probe was sent to land on Venus?

    • AI Overview

      The most recent probe to successfully land on Venus was part of the Vega 2 mission in 1985. The Vega 2 lander, along with a lander from Vega 1, successfully landed on Venus's surface on June 15, 1985

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by bjoast ( 1310293 )

      it is almost certainly going to survive re-entry

      There is a difference between a controlled re-entry and an uncontrolled. Furthermore, this spacecraft is not completely intact, which could have consequences.

    • The parachute will probably not open,

      I quickly checked Wikipedia, it's the last of the older design probes that used actual parachutes.

      Starting from Verena 9, the probes switched to using a ring-shaped aerobrake which doesn't require deployement, but is heavily optimised toward the insanely dense Venus atmosphere and won't work much in the much thiner Earth atmosphere.

      and most of the ocean is deep enough that the probe might not withstand the pressure.

      Quick check again: Venus surface pressure (which Verena 8 is designed to withstand) is 92 bars.
      That's roughly equivalent of 1km depth in the ocean.
      That leaves a significant perce

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by necro81 ( 917438 )

        Then there's the problem of corosion. Verena probes are designed to withstand Venus' acid athmosphere, not Earth salty oceans.

        The pressure vessel was titanium alloy. That would hold up quite well to an ocean environment. Actually, most materials you'd build a pressure vessel out of could hold up to an ocean environment for a while - maybe long enough to try to find and retrieve it. It'll be awfully tough to locate, though.

        • will the dog survive ?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by pjt33 ( 739471 )

          It's going to be fairly well known where it went down. The search for MH370 has recently resumed in part because submarine drones are now at the point that they can map the seafloor incredibly fast. If someone thinks it's worth paying for the search, it's probably feasible to find it.

    • Re:We're headed for Venus, but still we stand stro (Score:4, Insightful)

      by ls671 ( 1122017 ) on Wednesday April 30, 2025 @05:45AM (#65341891) Homepage

      There is a ~11/9 chance that it will water in the ocean, and it might survive that, too.

      Probabilities range from 0 to 1.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by necro81 ( 917438 )

        There is a ~11/9 chance that it will water in the ocean, and it might survive that, too.

        Probabilities range from 0 to 1.

        Not in Soviet Russia!

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

        Odds, however, do not.

      • There is a ~11/9 chance that it will water in the ocean, and it might survive that, too.

        Probabilities range from 0 to 1.

        Not true, it’s a statistic and 9/5ths of statistics are made up.

    • "As this is a lander that was designed to survive passage through the Venus atmosphere, it is possible that it will survive reentry through the Earth atmosphere intact, and impact intact,"

      Does anyone else suspect it's going to impact on a children's hospital or orphanage in Ukraine?

    • There is a ~11/9 chance that it will water in the ocean

      I did not know that Russian probes could pee.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by chthon ( 580889 )

      Wasn't that the scenario of an episode of "Six Million Dollar Man"?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Inoshiro ( 71693 )

      How does a thing that isn't water, 'water in the ocean'? What? A thing can't water. The only thing that is water, is H2O.

      Also, no -- it will not survive atmospheric re-entry. The atmosphere see to that. The heat of re-entry exceeds the temperature of Venus by *THOUSANDS OF DEGREES*.... It will not survive in 1 piece. This isn't a matter of atmospheric pressure, nor is this a matter of G-shock. It's plasma; it'll be in an envelope of super-heated plasma. Why do you think they can't use the radios

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Inoshiro ( 71693 )

        To be extra clear, here: titanium melts around 1,900 kelvin. The temperature of re-entry is 3,200 kelvin. Yes, 3,200 kelvin is "below" the temperature required to make titanium boil (by 300 kelvin), but you'll note that the 1,900 is 3,200 by 1,300.

        Who honestly thinks titanium that's been heated to 'just below' its boiling point for half an hour, will be somehow intact once it's slow enough to not self-generate plasma due to atmospheric drag?

        Ridiculous.

    • A radioactive museum piece? No lighting needed. I suspect it has plutonium RTGs in it

  • Space junk locked up in a Police cell (Score:4, Interesting)

    by ags ( 145597 ) on Wednesday April 30, 2025 @05:01AM (#65341859)

    A farmer near Ashburton, New Zealand found one of the fragments - a titanium ball - on his farm in 1972. No one knew what it was, they thought it might be dangerous or even radioactive. Not knowing what to do, the local Police took it away and locked it up in their Police cell.

    The New Zealand Government tried to give it back to Russia, but they denied it was theirs. Eventually, the mysterious ball that no one wanted, was given to a local museum, where it still resides.

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/... [nzherald.co.nz]

  • I recommend this video by Scott Manley [youtube.com] on Youtube for more info on the probe's history and possible outcomes.

  • I seem to remember there was an episode where a failed launch resulted in a Russian Venus probe running around the deserts of California, and only the Six Million Dollar Man could stop it...

  • Maybe its sensors will still be working and it will find life here

  • Wasn't this how the zombies in Romero's original Night of the Living Dead get created? A Venusian probe crashing back to Earth?

  • It will likely handle atmospheric reentry with barely a scorching. Even if after 53 years it had systems still functional and able to deploy a chute, that chute was meant for a much thicker atmosphere and pretty much wouldn't matter. Whether it hits land or sea, it'll do it at a velocity that is well beyond the limit it could survive.

    Might be some big pieces, though.

    It's kind of sad. I wish it was less expensive to get to orbit, because it would have been great to save the probe and put it in a museum so

  • '"As this is a lander that was designed to survive passage through the Venus atmosphere, it is possible that it will survive reentry through the Earth atmosphere intact, and impact intact," Langbroek wrote in a blog update"'

    Uh, no.

    1) High-energy plasma at 3,200 K upon re-entry. This occurs for 25 minutes or so. This is why Columbia became ... a large number of pieces of wreckage strewn across multiple US states.
    2) Venera probes use drag-parachutes to reduce velocity to the point that they can survive entr

  • Plutonium RTG? The Soviets loved plutonium....

    • Anyone listening? Does this probe have an RTG. I assume so, but can someone check the specs. What is going to happen to the plutonium inside it?

  • At least those of us who grew up with "The Six Million Dollar Man"... Death Probe [fandom.com]

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