Can you imagine what it would be like to have a battery that could provide continuous power for decades? Amazingly enough, the technology has been in use for more than thirty years with little fanfare and few attempts to market the batteries to the huge commercial market. In this issue we tell you a bit about the history and technology of radioisotope thermal generators.
It is almost as if NASA, ever cognizant of the need for taxpayer support of its programs, put this useful device “in the closet”, using it when necessary but maintaining an unofficial policy that technical details were best kept from public view. This issue was inspired by a request from one of our Internet readers…
The Apollo missions to the moon are famous for heroic astronauts, exciting first steps and incredible pictures that fired the imaginations of a whole generation of scientists, engineers and school children. Mixed in along with the hoopla about sending men into space on huge, fire spewing rockets, however, was some serious science. Each time the…
Russian Nukes Short of Cash (Aug 25, 1996) – Like many parts of the Russian economy, the nuclear power industry is burdened with major customers that often do not pay their bills. According to a Reuter’s news story Rosenergoatom (the nuclear plant operating company) is close to making a decision to shut down some of…
Tiny, milliwatt capacity RTGs found a home inside the chests of middle aged people in countries like France, Russia and even the United States. These devices – about the same size as a AA battery – were designed to power cardiac pacemakers. Not all of the RTGs that have been produced have been designed for…
Strontium is not associated with nuclear weapons and has never been called the most deadly element known to man. There is a precedence in the United States for widely licensing small quantities of sealed Sr-90; it is used in some aircraft ice detection systems. Essentially all RTGs that have been produced have been designed for…
Bennett, G. L. et al “Status Report on Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators using Silicon Germanium Thermoelectric Elements”, paper presented at the 29th Intersociety Energy Conversion Engineering Conference, Monterey CA, 1994. AIAA-94-4127-CP Kelly, E C. and Klee, P. “Cassini RTGs – Small Scale Module Tests”, paper presented at the 29th Intersociety Energy Conversion Engineering Conference, Monterey CA,…
The only planned use of RTGs in the US space program in the near term is the unmanned, 1997 Cassini mission to explore Saturn. The Cassini spacecraft will be powered by three General Purpose Heat Source Radioisotope Thermal Generators (GPHS RTGs) each designed to provide 276 W of electrical power at the beginning of the…