On 5 March 1982, the Soviet Venera 14 lander reached the surface of Venus, ejected the protective cap from its camera lens, photographed the surrounding terrain — and then lowered its mechanical soil-testing arm directly onto the discarded lens cap, returning a clean measurement of the compressibility of Soviet plastic instead of Venusian rock.
The Soviet Union launched Venera 13 and Venera 14 in late 1981 with the objective of surviving long…
