Posted on 08/04/2003 7:36:59 AM PDT by bedolido
IDAHO FALLS -- A team of Idaho scientists is working to ensure space exploration takes place in the future.
The experts at Argonne National Laboratory-West are developing batteries called radioisotope thermoelectric generators. Their budget for the next 18 months is estimated at $21 million.
Department of Energy officials moved the nation's space battery program from Ohio to Idaho last year because of security concerns stemming from the September eleventh terrorist attacks.
The plutonium in the batteries produces heat, which can power spacecraft for decades. NASA plans to send an exploration device to Pluto in 2006.
--Boris
From: http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/instruments_rtg.html
Three RTG units, electrically parallel-connected, are the central power sources for the mission module. Each RTG is made up of an isotopic heat source, a thermoelectric converter, a gas pressure venting system, temperature transducers, connectors, a heat rejecting cylindrical container, and bracketry. The RTGs are mounted in tandem (end-to-end) on a deployable boom as part of the MM. The heat source radioisotopic fuel is Plutonium-238 in the form of the oxide Pu02. In the isotopic decay process, alpha particles are released which bombard the inner surface of the container. The energy released is converted to heat and is the source of heat to the thermoelectric converter.
It would be much cheaper if it can take place in the past.
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