OT: Voyager watts

--- John Allain <allain(a)panix.com> wrote: Having once received weekly Voyager status reports from Ron Baalke, I read that report as during the week, the spacecraft used 9gm of propellant, and required 305 W to accomplish its task. In the case of a Voyager-class probe, with RTG-sourced power, they can graph number of watts available over time as the heat source decays. The critical thing is not to set yourself up to draw more power than the RTG can source. I would expect the spacecraft to go into safe mode if it hit a significant power deficit. They used to power automated weather stations in Antarctica with the same RTG technology, but due to the environmental treaty, the last one came out over 5 years ago. -ethan The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo. http://search.yahoo.com