Pioneer to Venus - The multiprobe and orbiter missions

The missions of the Pioneer multiprobe and orbiter spacecraft to Venus are surveyed and illustrated with drawings, photographs, maps, and diagrams. The general characteristics of Venus and the pre-Pioneer missions are reviewed; the developmental history of the Pioneer project is traced; the spacecraft and their orbits and deployment are described; and the scientific findings on the planet surface, atmosphere, and ionosphere are summarized. The experiments planned for the extended mission of the orbiter (through reentry in 1992) are briefly characterized, includidng solar-wind-interaction studies, comet detection, ionosphere and aeronomy investigations, global lightning survey, optical observations, gamma-ray-burst detection, radar mapping, gravity measurements, and observations of Halley's Comet during February, 1986.