The 1960s Tech Keeping NASA’s Voyager Probes Alive for Nearly 50 Years
Solar panels are next to useless in the outer solar system, so NASA’s Voyager probes rely on nuclear batteries—technology ...
Radioisotope generators—inside the 'nuclear batteries' that power faraway spacecraft
Powering spacecraft with solar energy may not seem like a challenge, given how intense the sun's light can feel on Earth.
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Radioisotope generators − inside the ‘nuclear batteries’ that power faraway spacecraft
Instead, plutonium-238 is an unstable element that will undergo radioactive decay. Radioactive decay ... it loses two protons and turns into uranium-234, which has 92 protons.