12 May
2003
12 May
'03
1:21 p.m.
From what I remember, those probes (and most (all?)
other deep space probes, I
think), use a radioisotope decay generator for power. This is a
sub-critical-mass nuclear power plant; it uses the heat produced by a
near-critical lump of plutonium to generate electricity, rather then using
fission to produce heat to produce electricity.
So is this the power supply all those whiney people were bitching about
NASA trying to put into a Mars probe? They were all afraid the probe
would explode during launch and be ground zero of a nuclear blast (or
some other most likely vagely based on reality doomsday outcome activists
are notorious for).
-chris
<http://www.mythtech.net>