Pioneer Venus multiprobe entry telemetry recovery

Abstract

The entry phase of the Pioneer Venus Multiprobe Mission involved data transmission over a two hour span. The criticality of recovering those two hours of data, coupled with the fact that there were no radio signals from the probes until their arrival at Venus, dictated unique telemetry recovery approaches on the ground. The result was double redundancy, use of spectrum analyzers to aid in rapid acquisition of the signals, and development of a technique for recovery of telemetry data without the use of real time coherent detection, which is normally employed for all other planetary missions.