Well since there is still a spacestation orbiting the globe you can send a
shipment of just the fuel in packages (I assume quite a few could be
launched for the weight of 1 space probe) that will withstand re-entry to
the station and then load these batteries as needed into probes and launch
them from there. Most of the weight of a launch vehicle is just to get the
payload out of earths gravity, very little is needed once your in deep space
to achieve a nice cruising speed.
----- Original Message -----
From: "J.C. Wren" <jcwren_at_jcwren.com>
To: <cctalk_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Monday, May 12, 2003 2:59 PM
Subject: Re: OT: Voyager watts
> Vaguely true. They're concerned about a pad explosion or unexpected
reentry
> that could result in plutonium being scattered around the countryside.
> Plutonium is an extremely toxic metal. 1 microgram will kill you damn
quick.
> Plus it's readily absorbed by tissue, which means everywhere you have a Pu
> speck, you're irradiating tissue with ionizing radiation in a few
centimeter
> radius. Not good for a long term outlook.
>
> Incidently, the tree huggers worries on this matter are not completely
> unfounded. Because of launch weight issues, the shielding material is not
> really designed to survive reentry.
>
> --John
>
> On Monday 12 May 2003 14:20 pm, chris wrote:
>
> > 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>
Received on Mon May 12 2003 - 14:20:01 BST