NASA's Perseverance rover sends stunning images

Re:NASA's Perseverance rover sends stunning images by btilly on Tuesday March 02, 2021 @11:15PM (#26324684)

Each Mars Rover uses 5 kilograms of plutonium 238. (Plutonium 239 is the one that is used in nuclear bombs.)

Per https://www.wired.com/story/nasas-mars-rover-will-be-powered... we currently have a lab dedicated to producing it, and it makes 3.5 pounds per year.

Per https://www.npr.org/2011/11/08/141931325/the-plutonium-probl... the cost of getting the lab restarted was a bit shy of $100 million. And once running fully it costs millions of dollars to run.

At those cost points it would be cheaper to deliver you a brand new fridge each month for the next 20 years than to deliver you a single fridge using plutonium to run without external electricity for the same 20 years. Not to mention that the plutonium itself is toxic.

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Re:NASA's Perseverance rover sends stunning images by junon on Wednesday March 03, 2021 @03:36AM (#26326034)

Thanks for the info, interesting.

Though FWIW I was more commenting on the mocking of a legitimate question. Not everyone has the same background as everyone else. There are no stupid questions.

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