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Venus has a thick and deadly atmosphere that makes landing on it hard.
Visiting Venus can be a mission after visiting the Moon and Mars. Unlike Moon and Mars, Venus has a rather thick and dense atmosphere, increasing aerodynamic drag, resulting in a much more difficult EDL and departure.
Rocket[]
A rocket must at least have 3 stages to get to Venus. A tutorial can be found here: Building Venus rockets
Mission[]
Unlike a mission to Mars, a mission to Venus is more challenging since it's larger, has higher gravity and has a very thick atmosphere.
Preparations for launch[]
Before the launch, Earth and Venus must be aligned properly. Consider them as a clock. If Earth is at the 3:00 position, then Venus must be at the 1:30 position; that means that Venus must be ~55 degrees ahead of Earth. After this alignment is achieved, it's time for launch.
Launch[]
The rocket must launch nominally (see this tutorial on how to get to orbit). By the time the apogee gets past the 30 km mark, turn to the side and burn until the trajectory wraps around the Earth.
Coasting to Venus[]
Select Venus and click Navigate To. A transfer window will appear with a dot on the orbit (where the transfer burn must be conducted) and a dotted line for the nominal trajectory to Venus. Time warp to the transfer window and fire the engine prograde until the trajectory intersects Venus. After the trans-Venusian injection time warp until the rocket reaches Venus.
Venus landing[]
When the rocket reaches the periapsis on Venus, fire the engine retrograde until the rocket achievez a circular orbit around Venus. Pick a landing spot (preferably Atalanta Planitia, Lavinia Planitia, or other flat spots, a mountain peak, or Maxwell Montes) then burn retrograde until the trajectory becomes suborbital. Be precise on where your landing footprint is. The trajectory must be a few kilometers to the left of the landing footprint when it intersects the atmosphere. Detach the transfer stage. Time warp until the rocket goes into the atmosphere. When entry occurs, face the heat shield towards the direction of travel. The atmosphere will slow down the rocket to around 10 m/s, the usual touchdown speed. Heavier rockets will slow down to a higher speed than mentioned above.
When the altitude drops below 2500 meters, deploy the parachute. It may take a while to get to the surface of Venus.
Returning to Earth (optional)[]
Learn more at : Venus full mission
Before ascending from the surface of Venus and getting back to Earth, Venus and Earth must be aligned as in before the launch. Earth must be ahead of Venus by ~35 degrees.
It requires a large rocket to get off of Venus. Atmospheric engines must be used to get off of Venus, and so the lander must be equipped the components to get off of Earth's gravity and get to space (like boosters, high-thrust engines, etc.). Get to orbit on Venus just like on Earth (see this tutorial).
After reaching a few kilometers above Venus, the rocket's velocity will stabilize because of aerodynamic drag. Try to make the rocket as aerodynamic as possible to avoid this effect.
When reaching 10 kilometers, the atmosphere gets thinner and thinner. The atmospheric drag will decrease by this point. When reaching this point, start turning to one side slowly.
Getting to orbit on Venus is as difficult as getting to orbit on Earth, so the rocket must pack a lot of fuel.
Just like the trans-Venusian injection on Earth, select Earth and click Navigate To, then a transfer window will appear. Burn at the transfer window. Refueling may be required before doing this.
Just like the landing on Venus, slow down before reentry, face the heat shield towards the direction of travel, deploy the parachute, and land safely on Earth. After this the mission is now done.
Tips[]
- It is recommended to encase the lander in a protective case.
- If the rocket is heavy, deploy two or more parachutes to create more drag.
- Refueling during the mission can be helpful, especially for return missions.
- Improve the design of your rocket to overcome the effects of every part of the mission, especially in landing on Venus and ascending from Venus.
- If the rocket is in a hyperbolic trajectory on Venus, it might burn up during atmospheric entry. Slow down before touching Venus's atmosphere or aerobrake in the upper reaches of the atmosphere to avoid burning up during atmopsheric entry.
- Trajectory correction maneuvers are required while coasting to Venus. If done too late, it will fail the mission.
- When doing a rover mission to Venus, it must have a slow down stage to survive entry.
- The rocket might experience some glitches when landing on Venus because of its thick atmosphere.
Activities[]
- Main article: [[Venus Activities]]
- Conducting experiments
- Orbital and atmospheric research
- Driving a rover
- Exploring and studying its surface features (such as mountains, depressions, etc.)
- Sample return missions