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Pretty damn cool that they were able to get photos of an 800 degree planet back in the 1970s... It is amazing what the Soviets pulled off with their crude technology.

Well, the photo is enhanced, but it is still an impressive feat. To combat the crushing pressure of Venus's atmosphere (90 times that of Earth!) the cameras looked out through windows made of quartz that was 1cm thick! There is a BBC article about it here

Thanks for the link - very interesting article. I don't think we'll be colonizing Venus any time soon.

What's even more amazing than the Soviet ship surviving the 800 degree temperatures or the 90x Earth atmospheric pressure is that they were able to return images of any kind to Earth... Venus is completely covered with thick layers of clouds.

One can only wonder where we might be today if the Soviets and Americans had "stayed the course" and continued space exploration with new accomplishments at the rate that were being made in the 60s and 70s. New innovations pretty much died out from the 80s onwards.