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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNASA’s Plutonium Problem Could End Deep-Space Exploration
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/09/plutonium-238-problem/I know there are people who are anti-nuclear, but to lose deep-space exploration over a lack of plutonium-238 is simply unacceptable to me. Period.
But, once again Congressional stupidity is at fault here, not anti-nuclear activism.
In 1977, the Voyager 1 spacecraft left Earth on a five-year mission to explore Jupiter and Saturn. Thirty-six years later, the car-size probe is still exploring, still sending its findings home. It has now put more than 19 billion kilometers between itself and the sun. Last week NASA announced that Voyager 1 had become the first man-made object to reach interstellar space.
None of this would be possible without the spacecrafts three batteries filled with plutonium-238. In fact, Most of what humanity knows about the outer planets came back to Earth on plutonium power. Cassinis ongoing exploration of Saturn, Galileos trip to Jupiter, Curiositys exploration of the surface of Mars, and the 2015 flyby of Pluto by the New Horizons spacecraft are all fueled by the stuff. The characteristics of this metals radioactive decay make it a super-fuel. More importantly, there is no other viable option. Solar power is too weak, chemical batteries dont last, nuclear fission systems are too heavy. So, we depend on plutonium-238, a fuel largely acquired as by-product of making nuclear weapons.
But theres a problem: Weve almost run out.
Many of the eight deep-space robotic missions that NASA had envisioned over the next 15 years have already been delayed or canceled. Even more missions some not yet even formally proposed are silent casualties of NASAs plutonium poverty. Since 1994, scientists have pleaded with lawmakers for the money to restart production. The DOE believes a relatively modest $10 to 20 million in funding each year through 2020 could yield an operation capable of making between 3.3 and 11 pounds of plutonium-238 annually plenty to keep a steady stream of spacecraft in business.
None of this would be possible without the spacecrafts three batteries filled with plutonium-238. In fact, Most of what humanity knows about the outer planets came back to Earth on plutonium power. Cassinis ongoing exploration of Saturn, Galileos trip to Jupiter, Curiositys exploration of the surface of Mars, and the 2015 flyby of Pluto by the New Horizons spacecraft are all fueled by the stuff. The characteristics of this metals radioactive decay make it a super-fuel. More importantly, there is no other viable option. Solar power is too weak, chemical batteries dont last, nuclear fission systems are too heavy. So, we depend on plutonium-238, a fuel largely acquired as by-product of making nuclear weapons.
But theres a problem: Weve almost run out.
Many of the eight deep-space robotic missions that NASA had envisioned over the next 15 years have already been delayed or canceled. Even more missions some not yet even formally proposed are silent casualties of NASAs plutonium poverty. Since 1994, scientists have pleaded with lawmakers for the money to restart production. The DOE believes a relatively modest $10 to 20 million in funding each year through 2020 could yield an operation capable of making between 3.3 and 11 pounds of plutonium-238 annually plenty to keep a steady stream of spacecraft in business.
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NASA’s Plutonium Problem Could End Deep-Space Exploration (Original Post)
MicaelS
Sep 2013
OP
DetlefK
(16,423 posts)1. How a plutonium-battery works:
It's the thermoelectric effect.
You need two wires, made from different metals, e.g. iron and copper.
Connect them on one end.
Heat that point, e.g. with a piece of plutonium that's lukewarm from radioactive decay, but make sure that the other ends of the wires are unaffected.
The temperature-difference leads to a shift in electron-density, which is visible as an electric voltage between the untampered ends of the wires.
Connect an electronic device, e.g. a lamp, to the loose ends of the wires and it will run as long as the temperature-difference is upheld.
madrchsod
(58,162 posts)2. thanks for the explanation...
RC
(25,592 posts)3. I'm waiting for the wind power people to come along and ask why we can't use the solar wind to power
our space probes.
eppur_se_muova
(36,257 posts)4. Other isotopes work, but Pu-238 is the best for several reasons.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioisotope_thermoelectric_generator#Selection_of_isotopes
Considering the number of engineers in Congress, lots of luck explaining this one ...
Considering the number of engineers in Congress, lots of luck explaining this one ...