https://www.astronomy.com/science/the-venera-program-interpl...
Reading my uncle’s old tech magazines and sci-fi from the 70’s was fascinating. Eastern European sci fi was all about colonizing Venus and the Venera landers. The way kids in USA are obsessed with Mars, kids in my part of Europe used to be obsessed with Venus before the influx of Western media.
Getting to grow up on the cusp of that vibe shift was cool.
I used to read random issues when I'd go visit. My favorite were the 70's stories about "We are imminently going to have AI cars. Experiments are underway and trucks can now autonomously drive long distances on the highway! Humanoid robots are coming soon look at this super dextrous hand!!".
https://gutenberg.ca/ebooks/smithcordwainer-whenthepeoplefel...
Edit: Oop, missed that someone else posted a link to that same site (different page) a while before me. Well, nevertheless.
That said, I wonder whether with advances in material science and the likes they could build something that lasts longer.
The photos, the huge effort involved, and general strangeness of Venus is a great read. Lots of good youtube docs as well.
Not to say the US Apollo program was fundamentally different... it was just much much bigger. And unlike the Soviets the US published their failures (see the Apollo 1 fire).
Odd to think about how much progress was generated thanks to national pride and propaganda. What a strange time in the history of the world.
It’s sad that I will probably not live long enough to see a better quality picture of the Venusian hellscape.