Sentences with phrase «radioisotope power»

Space Exploration: Improved Planning and Communication Needed for Plutonium - 238 and Radioisotope Power Systems.

That's why NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars — and some other NASA spacecraft that explore the solar system — use something called «radioisotope power.»

«At that point, we were trying to find a small fission reactor that could provide similar power output as the radioisotope power systems,» Mason said.

Many have high hopes for a new power source called the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG), which uses a smaller amount of plutonium - 238 and is more efficient than previous radioisotope power sources.

Engineers suspect that the spacecraft's radioisotope power source no longer yields enough energy to send more transmissions to Earth.

NASA's Radioisotope Power System (RPS) program, managed by NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, is funding the development of new, higher efficiency thermoelectric materials that could be incorporated into a next - generation enhanced MMRTG that would provide about 25 percent more power at the start of a typical mission, and 50 percent more power at the end of a mission.

«Radioisotope power systems are a key tool to power the next generation of planetary orbiters, landers and rovers in our quest to unravel the mysteries of the universe.»

The currently available radioisotope power system, also supplied to NASA by the DOE, is called the Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG).

The DOE's Office of Nuclear Energy develops, manufactures, tests and delivers radioisotope power systems for space exploration and national security missions and maintains responsibility for nuclear safety throughout all aspects of the missions.

Radioisotope power systems convert heat from the natural radioactive decay of the isotope plutonium - 238 into electricity.

In all, 27 past U.S. space missions have used this radioisotope power for their electricity and heat.

Because half of any amount of plutonium - 238 decays in 87.7 years, these radioisotope power sources now generate about three - quarters of that wattage.

Not exact matches

Dragonfly would be powered by a Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG); while there is enough sunlight at Titan's surface to see, there is not enough to use solar power efficiently.

Some of the Ares mission's equipment is powered by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG).

Cassini also received flak from environmental groups who were concerned that when the spacecraft flew by Earth, its radioisotope thermoelectric generator (nuclear power) could pose a threat to our planet, JPL added.

The spacecraft, powered by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator, managed to acquire 50 gigabits of data during the flyby, where it came within 7,800 miles of the small planet.

A wildcard in the planned launch of New Horizons surrounds the radioisotope thermoelectric generator used to power the probe in the deepest extent of the solar system where the Sun is 1,000 times fainter than here on Earth.

Tens of billions of tons of concrete are part of that signature, along with vast amounts of smelted aluminum and more exotic alloys, distinctive spherical particles of fly ash from power plants, bomb radioisotopes, 6 billion tons (and counting) of plastic, and so much more.

The appliances of 2014 will have no electric cords, of course, for they will be powered by long - lived batteries running on radioisotopes.

any nuclear reactor wherever located; any nuclear fuel cycle facility; any radioactive waste management facility; the transport and storage of nuclear fuels or radioactive wastes; the manufacture, use, storage, disposal and transport of radioisotopes for agricultural, industrial, medical and related scientific and research purposes; and the use of radioisotopes for power generation in space objects