>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
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Received on Mon May 12 2003 - 13:21:00 BST