Slashdot Mirror
NASA Running Low On Fuel For Space Exploration
smooth wombat writes "With the end of the Cold War came warmer relations with old adversaries, increased trade and a world less worried about nuclear war. It also brought with it an unexpected downside: lack of nuclear fuel to power deep space probes. Without this fuel, probes beyond Jupiter won't work because there isn't enough sunlight to use solar panels, which probes closer to the sun use. The fuel NASA relies on to power deep space probes is plutonium-238. This isotope is the result of nuclear weaponry, and since the United States has not made a nuclear device in 20 years, the supply has run out. For now, NASA is using Soviet supplies, but they too are almost exhausted. It is estimated it will cost at least $150 million to resume making the 11 pounds per year that is needed for space probes."
Or if that wont work it looks like there is a decent chance we'll be able to buy some from the Taliban soon.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
In news unrelated to their shortage of plutonium, NASA is also looking for a buyer for a shiny bomb casing full of used pinball machine parts...
Michael Coyne
http://turthalion.blogspot.com
Given that nuclear reprocessing plants, such as Sellafield, supplied a lot of weapons material for the British nuclear program, I'd be astonished if these could not extract all of the plutonium needed from those fuel rods that have been recycled this way.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
We allowed breeder reactors or nuclear reprocessing at civilian reactors.
Can't wind farms and solar energy suffice?
No. Wind farms work on the relative velocity between the ground and the atmosphere, but in space, there's no ground and almost no atmosphere. And the summary states: "there isn't enough sunlight to use solar panels".
I know Sr-90 is often also used in similar devices (mainly Russian ones), any reason why we can't switch to that?
Necessity is the mother of all invention. Lets take this opportunity to find a new method of powering probes for such long distance missions.
problem is they will most likely want to deliver it themselves.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
You're right. About the first part.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
The US still has plenty of nuclear warheads that could be retired and their plutonium used for this purpose, unless for some reason the fuel has degraded.
President Obama has suggested additional reductions in nuclear arms held by the US and Russia, so perhaps the plutonium from those could be used.
Or perhaps NASA could adapt their generators to use plutonium 239, which they could get from a Fast Breeder reactor, if we ever build one.
Weapons-grade plutonium is made by refining nuclear waste in a reactor. This process reduces nuclear waste by 95%, but is frowned upon by the major nuclear powers because it produces weapons-grade plutonium, and no one wants to be manufacturing bomb-making material. They've been doing it since the 1940's so its not new or anything. The problem is also that such manufacture is illegal on an international scale.
The article says that P-238 is used as a power source because of the heat is causes during decay. Surely someone could come up with a better power source for these probes than a rare isotope. I'm not even sure than this plutonium could be manufactured by refining nuclear waste, since that process produces P-239.
And over there we have the labyrinth guards. One always lies, one always tells the truth, and one stabs people who ask t
No, remember, Uranus is where the sun doesn't shine.
Canada: The US's more awesome sibling.
Except that they don't actually travel in a straight line away from the sun. They use the slingshot effect to travel a couple orbits around the sun and build up lots of speed. It would probably be very hard to aim the laser the correctly on a moving target millions of miles away.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
There is a source available. Just decommission a few nuclear warheads each year. Since the US has enough nuclear weapons to basically end civilization, I suspect some could be spared without meaningfully degrading national security.
War! Huh! What is it good for?
Space exploration, apparently.
Uhh.. No your wrong.
Really RTGs are actually simple, cheap, and effective. Solar will not work well past the orbit of Mars, Reactors are more expensive, complex, and weigh more.
So sparky you tell me what can produce power for years without much light, heat, or air, and has a mass of less then 60 kgs?
Oh and "I am sure they can think of something" is not an answer.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
To all the smart alecks, no they can't use weapons grade plutonium, which is 239, they need 238, which has a much shorter half-life (88 y compared to 24100 y) and therefore gives off much more energy. They don't need an isoptope that is fissile, they need one with a short half-life.
That's what your body thetans want you to think.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
"I'm sure that in 1985 plutonium is available in every corner drug store, but in 1955 it's a little hard to come by."
This about Pu-238 for use in thermoelectric generators. Pu-239 does not produce enough heat.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
The 'Propaganda' you refer to is generally about far-away places and events, and therefor any contrast with reality would not be apparent.
No. American propaganda is alive and well but it has different goals. Korea is about obeying and serving your god-like leader. American is about consuming and consuming and is so successful that it's very difficult to get people to even see it.
One good method is to go backpacking for a month. You'd be amazed at how obvious and vulgar it all is when you return to 'civilization'.
"Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everybody agrees that it is old enough to know better." - Unknown
Wrong.
Wrong wrong wrong.
Pu-238 â Pu 239.
Pu-239 is what is used in warheads. It's rather stable (half life of ~24,000 years) but is a fissile substance which you can assemble into a supercritical form.
Pu-238 is relatively unstable (half life of ~88 years), so it gives off quite a bit of heat as it breaks down. Thus, it is used for RTGs (Radioisotope Thermal Generators).
Different isotopes are different.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.