So Venus is my favorite planet in the solar system - everything about it is just so weird.
It has this extraordinarily dense atmosphere that by all accounts shouldn't exist - Venus is close enough to the sun (and therefore hot enough) that the atmosphere should have literally evaporated away, just like Mercury's. We think Earth manages to keep its atmosphere by virtue of our magnetic field, but Venus doesn't even have that going for it. While Venus is probably volcanically active, it definitely doesn't have an internal magnetic dynamo, so whatever form of volcanism it has going on is very different from ours. And, it spins backwards! For some reason!!
But, for as many mysteries as Venus has, the United States really hasn't spent much time investigating it. The Soviet Union, on the other hand, sent no less than 16 probes to Venus between 1961 and 1984 as part of the Venera program - most of them looked like this!
The Soviet Union had a very different approach to space than the United States. NASA missions are typically extremely risk averse, and the spacecraft we launch are generally very expensive one-offs that have only one chance to succeed or fail.
It's lead to some really amazing science, but to put it into perspective, the Mars Opportunity rover only had to survive on Mars for 90 days for the mission to be declared a complete success. That thing lasted 15 years. I love the Opportunity rover as much as any self-respecting NASA engineer, but how much extra time and money did we spend that we didn't technically "need" to for it to last 60x longer than required?
Anyway, all to say, the Soviet Union took a more incremental approach, where failures were far less devastating. The Venera 9 through 14 probes were designed to land on the surface of Venus, and survive long enough to take a picture with two cameras - not an easy task, but a fairly straightforward goal compared to NASA standards. They had…mixed results.
Venera 9 managed to take a picture with one camera, but the other one's lens cap didn't deploy.
Venera 10 also managed to take a picture with one camera, but again the other lens cap didn't deploy.
Venera 11 took no pictures - neither lens cap deployed this time.
Venera 12 also took no pictures - because again, neither lens cap deployed.
Lotta problems with lens caps.
For Venera 13 and 14, in addition to the cameras they sent a device to sample the Venusian "soil". Upon landing, the arm was supposed to swing down and analyze the surface it touched - it was a simple mechanism that couldn't be re-deployed or adjusted after the first go.
This time, both lens caps FINALLY ejected perfectly, and we were treated to these marvelous, eerie pictures of the Venus landscape:
However, when the Venera 14 soil sampler arm deployed, instead of sampling the Venus surface, it managed to swing down and land perfectly on….an ejected lens cap.
27K notes
·
View notes
Percy at ease
Percy calm, but a little on edge
Percy when mildly angry
Friendly reminder that Percy jackson - our beloved silly adorable seaweed brain - is absolutely terrifying. When he’s angry, when he’s scared, when he’s on edge - he’s not warm and fuzzy.
No other character gets that reaction from people. Jason (the sweetie) is perceived as calm and in control, nico (our favorite self-outcasted outcast) is perceived as solemn and creepy, reyna (girlboss queen slay) is perceived as confident and assertive, and annabeth (our girl) is perceived as fierce, clever, and formidable. They are all intimidating to an extent.
But not like Percy. No. Becasue even when he’s at ease, he’s described as wild and disobedient. And when he’s not at ease, even if just little bit, he’s perceived as powerful, dangerous, and scary. Someone who NOBODY wants to mess with. Nobody even questions his power. One look from him has literal gangs running the other way. One look from him has Leo so scared that he’s literally shaking, and feeling the same innate fright and alarm that he does when jason summons an ear-piercing, earth-shaking, deadly bolt of lighting.
like… HELLO??? can we all just sit on that for a moment?? good lord
One angry look from percy has people thinking one thing: Run.
Percy is, canonically, the character that people find the most frightening and intimidating.
And unless he’s in a good mood - which you better hope he is - the reality is that most of us would be completely terrified of him if we met him.
11K notes
·
View notes
Men love me for my cadaver swag. The way my skin is cold like a corpse, my off-putting demeanor, and the way I stand in the threshold of the still-living and the dead.
6K notes
·
View notes
Hot take. Baldurs gate 3 actually ISNT horny enough. It should’ve been full body shots. A03 narration.
Roll for performance. Orgasm failed.
Too low charisma? Curse of the virgin.
Too low intelligence? Afflicted with himboism.
Little blue potion of erectness. Oh no it made ur dick fall off. Didn’t have one? You do now.
Tav on their period? Everyone disapproves except Astarion. He freaky like that.
you acquired like 10 STDS and are pregnant with a mindflayer egg. Karlach goes to touch the egg and cooks it into an omelette.
It’s added to your camp supply and consumed during your long rest
5K notes
·
View notes
Hey, if you’re gonna take the time to reblog and tag my stuff as “munchie” (a derogatory shorthand for Münchausen syndrome favored by redditors) and a whole slew of other horrible stuff, maybe don’t do it on a blog where you post full face selfies that can easily be reverse image searched back to your Facebook where it reveals you are a nurse :)
2K notes
·
View notes
You know what would make for a great story? Sokka demanding that Zuko find his space sword (I have personal bias in favour that dark blade mmrrrr, sexy, yeah I'm thirsting over a blade)
Because... Zuko's really good at finding things. He found Aang. The Gaang had been looking for Appa for days—but Zuko found him the day he started looking. He found his mum. He's meant to find things.
And Sokka just bam slam bursts in one day and says “hurry up! We're gonna find my sword. You owe me that much!”
And they go on a nice (or not so nice) little adventure.
2K notes
·
View notes