The Mars Science Laboratory will carry a device known as a Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (RTG) that converts the heat given off when radiation is absorbed by metal into electricity, with no moving parts.
All that’s required is a piece of radioactive material, sealed up inside metal or ceramic, and a thermocouple. The result is a lot of electricity from a small device that takes care of itself, for as long as the material is radioactive (a slight problem being the fact that the longer the material is radioactive, the less radioactive it actually is–materials that are chosen are the best combinations of time and activity, like plutonium-238 or the “nuclear waste” substance strontium-90). See a post from July 2005 for more.
It apparently wasn’t discussed very loudly until recently for political reasons, given the Moon-hoax-theorist level of ignorance surrounding the last major RTG mission, Cassini.
Filed under Applications, Energy, Politics and Regulation, Waste
Posted on May 31, 2007 by Stewart Peterson |
