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A comment on NASA plans to launch a spacecraft to Titan. Parent comment

Re:NASA plans to launch a spacecraft to Titan by dev_tty01 on Friday June 28, 2019 @05:45PM (#20309024)
NASA has been using nuclear powered probes for 50 years. It is called a redioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG).

https://www.space.com/13709-plutonium-shortage-nasa-planetar...

Unfortunately, there is a shortage of plutonium-238 to run these RTGs (see above story). I guess that will get resolved somehow.

The current Mars Curiosity rover is powered by an RTG. Since this is the first flying (post-landing of course) probe I suppose it will be the first nuclear powered flight of a planetary probe.

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Re:NASA plans to launch a spacecraft to Titan by Rebelgecko on Friday June 28, 2019 @06:44PM (#20309404)
DOE has restarted Pu238 production. They're only making about a pound a year but they're still scaling up
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Re:NASA plans to launch a spacecraft to Titan by darkpuma on Saturday June 29, 2019 @12:02AM (#20310744)
America and Russia have both put proper fission reactors into space too.
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