How long would it take to get to Venus?

A planet worthy of further study at least perhaps? As our understanding of the solar system develops, and technologies advance, could Venus be worth another visit, and just how long would it take to get to Venus? Let’s Explore

Venus – Quick Facts

How Far Is Earth From Venus?

The closest that Earth and Venus approach each other is when Venus is at its furthest position from the sun (aphelion) and Earth is at its closest (perihelion), with both planets on the same side of the Sun. This is known as an inferior conjunction and happens roughly once every 584 days. As both planets have elliptical orbits, it is when they are at inferior conjunction at the thinnest part of their orbits that they are truly at their closest.

At it’s farthest, Venus can be as far as 257 million km from Earth on average. At it’s closest, it can be as far as 41 million km from Earth. As the orbit of Venus and Earth does change slightly over time, these closest and farthest distances expand and contract over time.

How Long Would It Take To Get To Venus?

Mission flight times to Venus have varied across different missions. If the aim is simply to get there as quickly as possible while being able to observe, this can be achieved within about 3 months, as with the Mariner 2 mission. But if the goal is to get close enough to enter orbit safely, then this takes longer.

As with travelling to Mercury, because Venus is closer to the Sun than Earth, and objects speed up as they approach the Sun, some of that speed needs to be edged off for orbit to be achieved.

What Is The Shortest Trip?

The shortest successful trip any vessel from Earth has taken so far to reach Venus, was 109/110 days. This was achieved with the Mariner 2 mission which conducted the first successful flyby of Venus. It has been estimated that the Russian Venera 1 spacecraft did reach Venus quicker, at 97 days. However, Venera 1 lost contact with Earth and was not able to be adjusted to pass closer to the planet. This mission was a failure.

The more complex the mission the longer the flight time. These fast missions here were both flybys and could be launched at speed and without the need to slow down to enter a comfortable orbit. Later missions that are more complex have had a longer flight time. Such as the Venus Express mission which had a flight time of 153 days.

How Often Does The Closest Approach Occur?

The close approach between Earth and Venus occurs every 584 days. Interestingly, while Venus is the closest planet to Earth in terms of the alignment of planets in the Solar System, the planet Mercury is actually closer to Earth for more of the time than Venus. That is because Mercury has a much shorter orbital period of the Sun. It spends more time on the same side of the Sun as Earth and reaches inferior conjunction with Earth much more frequently than Venus.

Missions To Venus – All Missions Past, Present And Proposed

There have been lots of missions to Venus. Lots of successful missions but also plenty of failures. In the 1960’s when the space race was in full throttle, there were 5 successful and 13 unsuccessful missions to Venus. All conducted between the fiercely competitive Soviet Union and USA. The USA did have a far more successful ratio of mission success, but also far fewer launches.

From 1970 onward missions to Venus have been far more successful with agency’s learning well from previous setbacks. The USSR in particular sent lots of missions to Venus. When we think of the early space race its common to think of NASA and the Apollo missions, but the USSR in many respects were every bit as ambitious in space.

Successful Missions To Venus So Far

Despite the popularity and highly publicised missions on the red planet, it is Venus that is our most visited cosmic neighbor. There have been more successful and unsuccessful missions to Venus than any other planet in the Solar System. Here are the successful ones so far!

Spacecraft	Country	Launch Date	Type of Mission	Mission Notes
Mariner 2	USA – NASA	Aug 1962	Flyby	First successful flyby of another planet.
Venera 4	Soviet Union – Lavochkin	June 1967	Atmospheric mission	First mission to successfully descend through the atmosphere and send back data.
Mariner 5	USA – NASA	June 1967	Flyby	Conducted various atmospheric experiments and observations over the course of around 15months. Data from this mission and Venera 4 were shared between the USA and USSR COSPAR working group.
Venera 5	Soviet Union – Lavochkin	Jan 1969	Atmospheric mission	Successfully entered atmosphere and operated for 53 minutes before landing hard.
Venera 6	Soviet Union – Lavochkin	Jan 1969	Atmospheric mission	Successfully entered atmosphere and operated for 51 minutes before landing hard.
Venera 7	Soviet Union – Lavochkin	Aug 1970	Lander mission	Mission only partially succeeded. The first to complete a ‘soft’ landing on another planet. However data sent back was limited as the lander rolled on landing damaging instruments.
Venera 8	Soviet Union – Lavochkin	Mar 1972	Lander mission	First mission to complete a successful landing intact on another planet.
Venera 9	Soviet Union – Lavochkin	Jun 1975	Orbital and lander mission	First mission to successfully enter orbit around Venus and to send back images from the surface of another planet.
Venera 10	Soviet Union – Lavochkin	Jun 1975	Orbital and lander mission	Only the orbiter was disclosed at launch.
Pioneer-Venus 1	USA – NASA	May 1978	Oribter mission	Conducted many experiments including radar mapping and studying the magnetic properties of Venus.
Pioneer-Venus 2	USA – NASA	Aug 1978	Atmospheric mission with Four probes	Craft arrived with 1 large and 3 small probes to study the atmosphere from different locations.
Venera 11	Soviet Union – Lavochkin	Sep 1978	Orbital and lander mission	Mission conducted flyby and landing. Most instruments failed on landing, mission had some successes.
Venera 12	Soviet Union – Lavochkin	Sep 1978	Orbital and lander mission	Mission conducted flyby and landing. Cameras failed on landing, mission had some successes.
Venera 13	Soviet Union – Lavochkin	Oct 1981	Orbital and lander mission	Took the first color images of the surface of Venus. First mission to record sounds from another planet. Lander exceeded mission expectations in remaining operatioal for 127 minutes.
Venera 14	Soviet Union – Lavochkin	Nov 1981	Orbital and lander mission	Lander functioned for 57 minutes, which was longer than the 32 minutes it was designed for.
Venera 15	Soviet Union – Lavochkin	Jun 1983	Oribter mission	Conducted radar mapping
Venera 16	Soviet Union – Lavochkin	Jun 1983	Oribter mission	Conducted radar mapping
Vega 1	Soviet Union – Lavochkin	Dec 1984	Hybrid mission including Flyby and lander with atmospheric probe.	Joint mission to study both Venus and Halley’s Comet. Studied atmosphere by means of probe. Lander studied surface and spacecraft was directed on to the comet.
Vega 2	Soviet Union – Lavochkin	Dec 1984	Hybrid mission including Flyby and lander with atmospheric probe.	Joint mission to study both Venus and Halley’s Comet. Studied atmosphere by means of probe. Lander studied surface and spacecraft was directed on to the comet.
Magellan	USA – NASA	May 1989	Oribter mission	Conducted radar mapping and HD imagery
Venus Express	Europe – ESA	Nov 2005	Oribter mission	Study of atmosphere, surface and plasma.
Akatsuki	Japan – JAXA	May 2010	Oribter mission	Failed to enter orbit on first attempt but succeeded on second attempt in 2015. Mission still in operation.
IKAROS	Japan – JAXA	May 2010	Solar sail experiment	Experimental craft conducted flyby.

Venus As A Springboard To Other Planets

As well as the multitude of missions sent to observe Venus, the planet has also been used to aid in sending craft to other planets. Venus has been used in many missions to help correct flight path and velocity in sending craft out into the Solar System, and also for slowing craft down on approach to Mercury. This process is known as a gravity assist, and here are those missions.

Spacecraft	Country	Launch Date	Type of Mission
Mariner 10	USA -NASA	3rd Nov 1973	Flyby en route to Mercury. Observed surface.
Galileo	USA -NASA	18th Oct 1989	Flyby en route to Jupiter. Observed surface.
Cassini	USA -NASA	15th Oct 1997	Flyby en route to Saturn. Observed surface.
MESSENGER	USA -NASA	3rd Aug 2004	Flyby en route to Mercury. Observed surface.
Parker Solar Probe	USA -NASA	12th Aug 2018	Several Flybys en route to the Sun.
BepiColombo	Europe – ESA	20th Oct 2018	2 Flybys en route to Mercury. Observed surface.
Solar Orbiter	Europe – ESA	10th Feb 2020	Several Flybys en route to the Sun.

Failed Missions To Venus

Missions to Venus got off to a rocky start. Most of the early missions in the 1960’s failed to get off the ground or out of low earth orbit. But with each failure came a lesson, an opportunity to adapt. Such is the nature of pioneering. These failures led the way to later successes.

Spacecraft	Launch Date	Country	Flight Issue	Mission Notes
Sputnik 7	4 February 1961	Soviet Union – OKB-1	Launch Failure	Never escaped low Earth orbit.
Venera 1	12 February 1961	Soviet Union – OKB-1	Spacecraft Coms Failure	Performed first flyby of another planet, but no data returned and the mission was a failure.
Mariner 1	22 July 1962	USA -NASA	Launch Failure	Destroyed after launch for safety
Sputnik 19	25 August 1962	Soviet Union – OKB-1	Launch Failure	Never escaped low Earth orbit.
Sputnik 20	1 September 1962	Soviet Union – OKB-1	Launch Failure	Never escaped low Earth orbit.
Sputnik 21	12 September 1962	Soviet Union – OKB-1	Launch Failure	Never escaped low Earth orbit.
Venera 1964A	19 February 1964	Soviet Union – OKB-1	Launch Failure	Did not reach orbit
Kosmos 27	27 March 1964	Soviet Union – OKB-1	Launch Failure	Never escaped low Earth orbit.
Zond 1	2 April 1964	Soviet Union – OKB-1	Electronics Fault	Comunications lost before reaching Venus. Flyby achieved but mission failure.
Venera 2	12 November 1965	Soviet Union – OKB-1	Spacecraft Coms Failure	Coms lost before data could be returned following flyby.
Venera 3	16 November 1965	Soviet Union – OKB-1	Spacecraft Coms Failure	Coms lost on entering atmosphere of Venus. No data returned so mission failure. It is believed atmospheric pressure caused critical damage. The craft was the first to enter the atmosphere and impact with another planet.
Kosmos 96	23 November 1965	Soviet Union – OKB-1	Launch Failure	Never low Earth orbit due to damage in later stages.
Kosmos 167	17 June 1967	Soviet Union – Lavochkin	Launch Failure	Never escaped low Earth orbit – failure in later stages.
Kosmos 359	22 August 1970	Soviet Union – Lavochkin	Launch Failure	Never escaped low Earth orbit – failure in later stages.
Kosmos 482	31 March 1972	Soviet Union – Lavochkin	Launch Failure	Never escaped low Earth orbit – failure in later stages.
Shin’en	20 May 2010	Japan – UNISEC	Spacecraft Coms Failure	Coms failed after launch.

Future Missions To Venus

Here are missions that are in current development for launch over the next decade. As well as these projects in development, there are a further 10 missions at proposal or concept stage across the various space agencies.

Spacecraft	Country	Launch Date (Proposed)	Type of Mission
Rocket Lab’s Venus probe	USA – NASA	2023	To study the atmosphere by means of an atmospheric balloon.
Shukrayaan-1	India – ISRO	2024	Mission includes Orbiter and an atmospheric balloon. This is India’s first mission to Venus as the country ramps up its space program
VERITAS	USA – NASA	2028	Orbiter mission.
Venera-D	Russia – Roscosmos	2029	Russia’s first trip back to Venus since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The mission includes an orbiter and a lander.
DAVINCI+	USA – NASA	2030	Misison to study the atmosphere by means of an atmospheric probe.
EnVision	Europe – ESA	2031	Orbiter mission.