There is a lot of interesting stuff in soviet space program.
For example the Vostok spacecraft (Gagarin) is still used on orbit 50 years latter for biological experiments.
Venera: The Soviet Exploration of Venus
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Re: Venera: The Soviet Exploration of Venus
#12One day I hope the humanity will credit the Soviet Union for what it really was -- a technocratic meritocracy, where scientific progress and enormous projects of planetary scale mattered more than daily preferences of spoiled individuals. Hopefully one day such a society will emerge again, and this time they will not dismantle themselves over having Coke and Levi's. Having lived in USSR -- no, we seriously didn't bre…
Maybe it deserves credit for R&D and engineering talent, but certainly not for what USSR really was.
Re: Venera: The Soviet Exploration of Venus
#13One day I hope the humanity will credit the Soviet Union for what it really was -- a technocratic meritocracy, where scientific progress and enormous projects of planetary scale mattered more than daily preferences of spoiled individuals. Hopefully one day such a society will emerge again, and this time they will not dismantle themselves over having Coke and Levi's. Having lived in USSR -- no, we seriously didn't bre…
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Re: Venera: The Soviet Exploration of Venus
#14One day I hope the humanity will credit the Soviet Union for what it really was -- a technocratic meritocracy, where scientific progress and enormous projects of planetary scale mattered more than daily preferences of spoiled individuals. Hopefully one day such a society will emerge again, and this time they will not dismantle themselves over having Coke and Levi's. Having lived in USSR -- no, we seriously didn't bre…
Maybe it deserves credit for R&D and engineering talent, but certainly not for what USSR really was.
As born in the USSR I can confirm that the USSR was a much better place to live in than modern Russia from almost any point of view: the best education system, better and affordable healthcare, practically no crime (if to compare with modern Russia), books and movies of much better quality than the flood of post-modern shit we have now, zero unemployment rate etc...
Re: Venera: The Soviet Exploration of Venus
#15Back in the 60s NASA considered a plan for a manned flyby of Venus using Apollo-derived hardware. I've wondered if a modern day manned flyby mission might make sense. A rover could be landed on Venus more easily than on Mars, but it would, by necessity, have a very short lifetime on the surface. Once it's out of coolant, the mission is over. So if you were going to land a rover (or rovers) on the surface of Venus, yo…
That has to be the coolest idea I have heard in a very very long time.
Absolutely no convincing long term value, but we just have to do it, just because we can. No asteroids to mine, no Mars bases to build, but "what happens if we go over there and look"
Gets my vote.
Re: Venera: The Soviet Exploration of Venus
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
The only aerobots so far deployed on another planet, no less!
To be fair, the air density of Venus is much better for that than, let's say, Mars However, the Atmosphere composition makes it worse.
At more than 90 bar, the lower atmosphere of Venus is basically made up of supercritical CO2, making it more or less a question of taste whether to call it an atmosphere or an ocean. Indeed, floating cities have been suggested as a way that man could actually live on the planet. High up in the atmosphere, the pressure and temperature would actually be quite livable.
Re: Venera: The Soviet Exploration of Venus
#17One day I hope the humanity will credit the Soviet Union for what it really was -- a technocratic meritocracy, where scientific progress and enormous projects of planetary scale mattered more than daily preferences of spoiled individuals. Hopefully one day such a society will emerge again, and this time they will not dismantle themselves over having Coke and Levi's. Having lived in USSR -- no, we seriously didn't bre…
> a technocratic meritocracy
Unless you're Jewish.
Re: Venera: The Soviet Exploration of Venus
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe it deserves credit for R&D and engineering talent, but certainly not for what USSR really was.
As born in the USSR I can confirm that the USSR was a much better place to live in than modern Russia from almost any point of view: the best education system, better and affordable healthcare, practically no crime (if to compare with modern Russia), books and movies of much better quality than the flood of post-modern shit we have now, zero unemployment rate etc...
I was born in Russia in 1984; it was pretty great to me, because a) young kids don't notice as much of society's ills, and b) I'm the grandchild of a well respected academic.
Life was pretty good for me and my family; not so good for my friend, who had to share a two bedroom apartment with two other families.
(I feel that books, movies, etc. are pretty subjective - I like the flood of post-modern shit we live in. You might have to dig a little harder to find diamonds, but there are more of them.)
Re: Venera: The Soviet Exploration of Venus
#19One day I hope the humanity will credit the Soviet Union for what it really was -- a technocratic meritocracy, where scientific progress and enormous projects of planetary scale mattered more than daily preferences of spoiled individuals. Hopefully one day such a society will emerge again, and this time they will not dismantle themselves over having Coke and Levi's. Having lived in USSR -- no, we seriously didn't bre…
Meritocracy? Really? Then explain Lysenko, for example, who single-handedly, thanks to his political clout with Stalin and Krushchev, set Soviet agriculture, genetics and biology research back several decades. For severall years, going against Lysenko's theories was actually illegal.
And you can feel free to arrange your own little Soviet state. For my part, my marxist views would most likely have gotten me sent to Siberia or worse, so I'd much rather stay clear.
Re: Venera: The Soviet Exploration of Venus
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe it deserves credit for R&D and engineering talent, but certainly not for what USSR really was.
As born in the USSR I can confirm that the USSR was a much better place to live in than modern Russia from almost any point of view: the best education system, better and affordable healthcare, practically no crime (if to compare with modern Russia), books and movies of much better quality than the flood of post-modern shit we have now, zero unemployment rate etc...
As a Jew born in the USSR that soon emigrated, I've thankfully avoided the harrowing experiences my parents and grandparents had to go through. Comparing favorably to a kleptocracy that used Capitalism as a false flag just as much as the old oligarchy used Socialism isn't the sort of glowing recommendation I think you intended.