Who discovered the surface of venus was noxious and hot?
An American Mariner spacecraft in 1962 flew past Venus, and discovered it seemed to have a very hot surface. A Soviet spacecraft, Venera, subsequently entered the atmosphere of Venus and found it was not only very hot, but was composed mainly of carbon dioxide, with sulfuric acid clouds. These were of course both unmanned robots. A manned landing on Venus is VERY far in the future, given how bad the place is.
