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1HE BATTALION
Thursday, October 19, 1967
College Station, Texas
Page 7
fl Soviet. Instruments Sftnd Back First. Venus Information
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By JOHN WEYLAND
Associated Press Writer
MOSCOW OP>—The Soviet Un
ion achieved another historic
space break-through Wednesday
by dropping on Venus instru
ments that radioed back the first
information ever received from
that planet’s surface. The data
indicated Venus’ temperature was
hot enough to melt metal.
U.S. space leaders, awaiting
Thursday’s flyby of Venus by
the American Mariner 5 space
craft, called the Soviet landing
of an instrument package on the
cloud-shrouded planet “an accom
plishment any nation can be
proud of.”
OFFICIAL VERSION here of
the flight gave no indication of
what happened to Venus 4, the
2,438-pound vehicle that carried
the instruments into Venus’ at
mosphere. Presumably it crashed
into the surface.
The information relayed to
earth showed Venus’ atmosphere
to be extremely hot—up to 536
degrees Fahrenheit—and made up
almost entirely of carbon dioxide,
whJfh the earth’s living creatures
cannot breathe.
The feat with the unmanned
Venus 4 spaceship was a big
prestige boost for this country’s
space program, which had suf
fered a tragic setback April 24
when cosmonaut Vladimar M.
Komarov was killed in the crash
of Soyuz 1.
IT WAS ALSO a big leap for
ward for the Soviet Union in the
space race with the United
States.
Official announcements de
scribed the Venus 4 flight this
way:
The spaceship, launched June
12, reached the atmosphere of
the planet—50 million miles away
—at 12:34 a.m., EDT, Wednes
day and released its instruments
in a separate package.
This braked itself, then put out
a parachute. For the next 90
minutes it floated down the 15
miles toward Venus’ surface,
sending back data through radio
signals.
THE TEMPERATURE ROSE
from 104 degrees Fahrenheit at
the start of the descent to five
times that at the end. Pressure
rose to 15 times that on earth.
VENUS 4 PROVIDED the So
viet Union with the first signifi
cant space success since its pre
decessor, Venus 3, reached the
planet. This was the first man
made object to reach Venus but
it failed to radio back anything
because of an equipment malfunc
tion.
Both Venus 3 and Venus 4 car
ried the hammer and sickle em
blem of the Communist state to
the planet.
This country started the race
to Venus on Feb. 12, 1961. The
United States joined in and in
1962 got back the first radio in
formation about the planet from
Mariner 2, but this passed with
in 21,000 miles of it.
U. S. Plans Hurt
By Space Cuts
The brilliant success of Russia’s
Venus 4 comes at a time when
budget cuts have stymied Ameri
ca’s future planetary plans for
several years.
The congressional cuts, heavily
opposed by many scientific
groups, may force America to
take a permanent back seat to the
Soviets in planetary exploration.
While the United States had
no plans to soft-land a space
craft on Venus, as Venus 4 did
Wednesday, this nation had hoped
to land two unmanned Project
Voyager laboratories on Mars in
1973 and two more in 1975 to
study the planet extensively, in
cluding a search for life.
Cuts in the National Aeronau
tics and Space Administration’s
fiscal 1968 budget request have
delayed the first double Mars shot
until at least 1975. Also elimi
nated was a preliminary scouting
mission to the red planet by a
smaller spacecraft in 1971.
NASA had sought $71.5 million
in the 1968 budget as a starter
for Voyager and $10.1 million for
the 1971 Mars scouting trip.
The House wiped out all these
funds. But early this month the
Senate Appropriations Committee
restored $36 million for Voyager,
not enough to fly in 1973.
Congressmen said an over-all
half-billion-dollar cut in NASA’s
budget was necessary because of
the rising cost of Vietnam and
other national programs.
A Senate-House compromise
must still be worked out on Voy
ager funds. Because of the Venus
4 success, congressmen might be
inclined to vote more money than
they ordinarily would—just as
they have loosened the purse
strings after previous Soviet
space successes.
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