Artist depiction of a balloon and a lander (possibly Russian-built) on the surface of Venus, proposed within European Venus Explorer project circa 2007. As of 2009, the mission was not expected to take off until around 2025, however. Credit: ESA

An artist depiction of the Venera-D spacecraft, circa 2008. A design borrowed from the cruise stage of the Phobos-Grunt spacecraft is easily recognizable, however smaller solar panels would be used due to proximity to the Sun. Notable is a depiction of the reentry craft, shaped like a descent module of Russia's next-generation manned spacecraft instead of a traditional ball-shaped capsule used in the Soviet missions to Venus . Credit: IKI

Color images of hellish surface of Venus obtained by Soviet Venera-13 and Venera-14 spacecraft exemplified the highest achievements in the exploration of the Earth's closest neighbor in the Solar System in the 20th century. Credit: IKI

The author would like to thank the director of Moscow's Space Research Institute, Lev Zeleny and his colleagues at IKI Oleg Korablev and Ludmila Zasova, as well as Hakan Svedhem, Franco Bonacina, Amruta Mehta at ESA and Francis Rocard at CNES for their tremendous help in preparing this section.

The author of this page will appreciate comments, corrections and imagery related to the subject. Please contact Anatoly Zak .