Pioneer Venus Multiprobe

Pioneer Venus Multiprobe

Spacecraft· NASAcompleted

Pioneer Venus Multiprobe (Pioneer 13) — a carrier bus that dispersed four entry probes to sample Venus's atmosphere at four sites at once (entry 9 December 1978). None were built as landers, yet the Day Probe kept transmitting for 67 minutes after hitting the surface — a rare direct reading from the Venusian ground. The bus itself took data until it burned up high in the atmosphere.

Open in 3D viewSee Pioneer Venus Multiprobe in the live, interactive 3D map

Key facts

Distance from Sun
0.728 AU
Status
Completed
Launched
1978

Mission & specifications

Mission

Operator
NASA
Launched
August 8, 1978
Status
Completed

Trajectory

Distance from the Sun
0.728 AU
Distance from Earth
0.597 AU
Distance from Venus
713,082 km

Mission

The Pioneer Venus Multiprobe took a very different approach to the same planet: rather than orbit, it would fall in. Launched on 8 August 1978, it was a single bus carrying four atmospheric entry probes — one large, three small — which it released weeks before arrival and scattered toward four widely separated points across Venus. On 9 December 1978 all four plunged into the atmosphere at once, radioing back temperature, pressure, composition and cloud structure from high altitude down to the surface — the first time Venus's air had been sampled simultaneously at several sites, on both the day and night sides. None of the probes was designed to be a lander, and most fell silent on impact, but one — the Day Probe — astonished its makers by continuing to transmit for sixty-seven minutes after hitting the ground, a rare direct reading from the surface of Venus. The carrier bus, too, sent back data until it burned up high in the atmosphere, completing a day-long mission that profiled an entire world's atmosphere in a single afternoon.

  1. 1978Four probes for one planetLaunch

    A carrier bus launches toward Venus with one large and three small atmospheric probes.

  2. 1978Probes releasedDeployment

    The Large Probe is released, followed by the three small probes, each aimed at a different site.

  3. 1978Four-site atmospheric entryMilestone

    All four probes plunge into the atmosphere at once, profiling it from high altitude to the surface.

  4. 197867 minutes on the surfaceMission end

    The Day Probe transmits for 67 minutes after impact; the bus takes upper-atmosphere data until it burns up.

Images

The Pioneer Venus Multiprobe bus and its four entry probes — artist's concept, not a photograph
NASA / Paul Hudson (public domain) · Wikimedia Commons

Images from open archives · credit shown per image