Timeline for answer to Why was Venus rather than Mars targeted for the first interplanetary landings? by Mazura
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| Apr 7, 2016 at 23:21 | history | edited | Mazura | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Apr 5, 2016 at 23:21 | comment | added | Mazura | Also, "enthusiasm" is integral to this question. It is after all, called the Space Race. If we're going to answer Why, we need to know what we're talking about. And what we're talking about had its first preparations made for sometime during WWII: The Cold War. - I'd suggest the question be edited, to remove the (last) part of it that belongs on History.SE, except that I see no call for that at all. It's just that we need to have some understanding of 1960s Earth to explain all of the reasoning behind this why. | |
| Apr 5, 2016 at 23:12 | comment | added | Octopus | @jamesqf, first satellite in orbit? USSR. first living being in space? USSR. first man in space? USSR. first space walk? USSR. first satellite to orbit the moon? USSR. first soft lunar landing? USSR. first lunar mission to return samples to earth? USSR. first manned mission to the moon? USA (yay finally!! good work USA) | |
| Apr 5, 2016 at 22:46 | comment | added | Mazura | @MarkBoghdani - The last part of my answer address the OP's last question: Or was there a non-technology related reason that deemed Venus the more exciting destination?" Yes, to WIN every possible facet of the Space Race. For which I would feel remiss if I didn't admit the fact that they basically did. | |
| Apr 5, 2016 at 17:37 | comment | added | jamesqf | @Mazura: Who sez, you? I'd also point out that there's a major difference between doing something first, and doing it well. As for instance the Soviets landed a probe on Mars which IIRC didn't even manage to send back a full picture before failing. NASA's Vikings lasted for years, doing science other than just pictures. | |
| Apr 5, 2016 at 16:51 | comment | added | Mark777 | @Mazura It would be more useful to give as much info as possible that has to do with the question than a debate of which space program was better or which one won.So paragraphs of cheering for USSR, US or other countries are'nt necessary since here it is not a forum for football clubs and cheering for them by giving our oppinions which one is better even if we are reffering historic facts,since the question has not to do with this.I suggest you to edit last part of your answer since the purpose of this site is giving arguments that answer the question not including enthusiastic paragraph | |
| Apr 5, 2016 at 11:23 | history | edited | Andrew Thompson | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Apr 5, 2016 at 5:58 | comment | added | Mazura | On July 17, 1975 the Space Race ended when an astronaut and a cosmonaut made "the first international handshake in space." The Soviet list goes on up till 1987. I'm having trouble finding a similar list for NASA's firsts... | |
| Apr 5, 2016 at 5:41 | comment | added | jamesqf | When you say "Soviet space program", I take that to mean the whole space program up until the collapse of the USSR in 1989. Seems rather unfair to pick an arbitrary end date. | |
| Apr 5, 2016 at 5:39 | history | edited | Mazura | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Apr 5, 2016 at 5:20 | comment | added | Mazura | Why, the OP asks? "... not because they are easy, but because they are hard." | |
| Apr 5, 2016 at 5:09 | comment | added | Mazura | @jamesqf "The Space Race [1957-1975] spawned pioneering efforts to launch artificial satellites, unmanned space probes of the Moon, Venus, and Mars, and human spaceflight in low Earth orbit and to the Moon." Voyger1 was launched in 1977; a day late and a dollar short. Besides, I'm counting achievements not failures. Here's a rather impressive list of the Soviet's Notable Firsts. | |
| Apr 5, 2016 at 4:59 | comment | added | jamesqf | I don't think it's arguable that the Soviet space program beat the Americans. Leaving out the moon, there were successful US Mars landers & orbiters (Soviet ones all basically failed, IIRC), the Pioneer & Voyager missions to the outer planets (no Soviet equivalent that I know of), Mariner 10 to Mercury, and successful Venus orbiter and landers (though they didn't take pictures): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_Venus_Multiprobe Indeed, going by Wikipedia's list of space probes, about the only thing the Soviets led in was failed missions. | |
| Apr 5, 2016 at 0:15 | history | answered | Mazura | CC BY-SA 3.0 |