Flashback Friday - 1962: 1st US Spacecraft Fly-By Of Another Planet (Venus)

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On this day December 14th 1962, a US made spacecraft called the Mariner 2 had finally arrived at it's long awaited destination Venus.  The Mariner 2 had launched on August 27th 1962, so it took just a little over 3 months to arrive.


Before the Mariner 2 was successful, the Mariner 1 had to be self detonated only 5 mins after takeoff (July 22, 1962) due to it veering off course from a SW glitch.  They were able to correct that issue in the code and use other learnings to make Mariner 2 a success.  Although there were a few hiccups and course corrections through it's flight to Venus, it was able to recover from all of them and hit its mark.

The Mariner 2 arrived at Venus on December 14th 1962 and began capturing data with its on-board instruments.  Weighing 40 lbs, here are the instruments it was equipped with:
  • Microwave radiometer
  • Infrared radiometer
  • Three axis fluxgate magnetometer
  • Cosmic ray detector
  • Cosmic dust detector
  • Solar plasma spectrometer
  • Particle detector
Some of the discoveries of Mariner 2 include:
  • Venus' temperature is 864 deg F
  • Venus is a high pressure planet (in fact later spacecraft from Russia that landed were crushed in minutes!)
  • The planets rotation is opposite of earth and the other planets in our solar system
  • The plants rotation is very slow 243 earth days
  • Because of this slow rotation, the magnetic field is very weak despite having a metal core
  • Solar wind measurements throughout it's flight


I am amazed that in 1962, they were even able to achieve such capability with the limited technology of the day. This craft was a fist in line of many to venture to alien worlds and explore our solar system.  It kick-started us into a whole new era of space exploration! We continue to push the envelope of human ingenuity and desire to know what lies beyond our skies!

#RookeiGuru
#GiveMeMore

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