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Venera 1
This was an unmanned mission, but upon landing on Venus a space probe was launched to go around and gather information. This mission was useful to us because, well, much like the others we can learn more about it. This spacecraft was the first to land successfully and deploy sometype of device to look at Venus. -
Vega 1
This Soviet probe taught us way more about Venus than we knew back then and taught us about how to get there sucessfully and get back safely. This was a development of the Venera spacecraft, which I have (will be?) mentioned. -
Magellan
Another unmanned one this was, courtesy of NASA.This spacecraft was the fourth successful project by NASA to reach Venus and return with information about the planet. It was also the best one, as it produced high quality photos of the Venus surface, unlike the others which produced low quality photos of Venus. This spacecraft had difficulties getting back down to Earth because of the inability to commmunicate with Earth and low battery power left. -
MESSENGER 2
This is technically not a mission as it only flies by Venus, twice. It is not designed to be studying Venus too long but will, since they are flying by it. It will mainly just inspect the surface of the planet on the voyage. The main reason though is because the spacecraft will be entering Mercury's orbit to examine the planet. It helps us learn about Mercury, along with Venus, because we may not be able to go and see them for ourselves someday. -
Venus Express ESA
This space craft, among many others, will hopefully enter the Vneus orbit and study the planet for a few years after that. It will be the first though, to orbit Venus and look through windows on the space craft as a way of visually observing the planet itself. The Venus Express will teach us more about the planet itself and more about how to get there and research more about Venus ourselves. -
Akatsuki/Planet C
Landing on Venus on the above date this space craft launched from Japan on May 20, 2010. It launched on a later date because of the weather conditions. Akaatsuki failed to enter the Venus orbit where it was supposed to study for two years or more. We have learned from their mistakes on why they failed to enter the Venus orbit on their mission. -
Bepi Columbo
Created by the ESA and JAXA together this will be in the nearby future, just two years away! The date had been set back from 2009 because of the cost and because of the weight of the initial design. The reason for making this is so they can learn more about Venus by being in orbit with Venus for a year. It will also get into Mercury's orbit and study Mercury for a year too. No point in wasting a mission on just one planet!
