Plutonium Shortage May Thwart Future NASA Missions to Outer Planets

[phantom power]

From the "descent into 3rd world status" files:

WASHINGTON -- NASA is facing the prospect of having to explore deep space without the aid of the long-lasting nuclear batteries it has relied upon for decades to send spacecraft to destinations where sunlight is in short supply.

(...)

The United States stopped producing plutonium-238 in 1988 and since then has relied upon a dwindling stockpile supplemented since 1992 by periodic purchases of the material from Russia.

(...)


Though Griffin did not mention it, the U.S. Department of Energy over the winter quietly shelved long-standing plans to resume domestic production of plutonium-238. In 2005, the Department of Energy (DOE) gave public notice of its intent to consolidate the nation's radioisotope power system activities at Idaho National Laboratory and start producing plutonium-238 there by 2011. Restarting production was projected at the time to cost $250 million.
"In the future, in some future year not too far from now, we will have used the last U.S. kilogram of plutonium-238, "Griffin said. "And if we want more plutonium-238 we will have to buy it from Russia."

(...)

Griffin, who has said many times that he finds it "unseemly" that the United States may have to depend entirely on Russia to access the space station between the space shuttle's retirement in 2010 and the introduction several years later of the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle or a commercial alternative, made clear he was no more pleased with the prospect of relying entirely on Russia for flying space missions requiring nuclear power sources.

(...)

When the hearing resumed March 6, Griffin told lawmakers Russia has advised the United States "that they are down to their last 10 kilograms of plutonium. "We are now foreseeing the end of that Russian line," he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20080306/sc_space/plutoniumshortagemaythwartfuturenasamissionstoouterplanets;_ylt=AtILhJvi2K6WNrUVys0gEB0PLBIF

[Dogmudgeon]

1. Typical tech-fix mentality!

We don't need to use dangerous nuKKKlear energy. We can use wind power, duh.

:eyes:

--p!

[GliderGuider]

2. Yeah, what about all that solar wind?

Surely we can design Solar Windmills to power our space probes!

[hatrack]

3. But but but what about the permanent Moon base? What about the Mission To Mars?!?

And we'll all wear purple hats, and everybody gets a free basketball! President Bush is making me giddy!!

(With props to Get Your War On).

[jpak]

5. but I want my free basketball...

<sniff>

:evilgrin:

[losthills]

4. Don't cry for me Luke Skywalker....

Pollute the earth we live on so Nasa can cruise the outer edges of the solar system easier?

No thanks.

[bananas]

6. Michio Kaku discussed this two years ago on his radio show

Links to audio etc in my post: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=228&topic_id=23960

Now the leading space industry trade magazine, Aviation Week & Space Technology, reveals that solar energy is to be used by NASA to substitute for nuclear power in deep space. The July 17th article began: “Budget and technical realities have led NASA to put its once-ambitious space nuclear power plans on a slow track, but development in solar power generation should allow new scientific probes beyond Mars to operate without nuclear energy. The U.S. space agency is already planning a solar-powered mission to study the atmosphere of Jupiter, and has looked at sending probes as deep into space as Neptune using only the Sun’s energy for spacecraft and instrument power…It is all but certain the next U.S. deep-space missions will be solar-powered.”

edit: more at http://www.space4peace.org/articles/nasa_admits_solar_will_work.htm

[NNadir]

7. Michio Kaku is a space luddite.

Solar energy has proved useless on earth, and it will be the same in deep space.

For a physicist, Kaku seems blissfully ignorant of inverse square laws.

In fact, while Kaku was crying over events that were less probable than anti-nuke fundies suddenly learning science, spacecraft were functioning all over the solar system.

It would seem that one of the super dangerous worstest deadliest ever wiped out everyone on earth RTG's, the one that crashed into the earth with Apollo 13 must have effected his thought processes and turned him into a mutant.

In fact, Kako is <em>not</em> an engineer, and his comments on the space program are the equivalent of the dopey consumer rock musician Sting's comments on nuclear power. They are irrelevant.

I have no use for the manned space program - except for the work on Hubble, which by itself may have justified the Space Shuttle.

But the robotic missions to the outer planets were some of the most beautiful events of my lifetime, serving the highest of all human enterprises, to extend vision.

The extension of vision is diametrically opposed of course to cult dogma, irrational paranoia and indifference to the laws of science, the most important of which, involve the laws of probability.

[IDemo]

8. Kaku lost me when his tv show depicted two astronauts finding the miracle solar tech

In the year 2050, as world oil supplies just begin to run out. Crisis averted, let's grab the space elevator down for a snack.

[NNadir]

9. Happily, I missed that one. Basically his entire scientific career is not worth

five minutes of the four hours of data sent by the Hyugen's spacecraft during its landing on Titan.

[jpak]

10. Umm..the first application of PV modules was to power telecommunication satellites

and the Spirit and Opportunity Mars Rovers were powered by PV - and were smashing successes.

The Mars Sojourner and NASA's Deep Space 1 vehicles also used solar PV modules...

http://marsrover.nasa.gov/technology/bb_power.html

Once again, solar deep space *science* triumphs over delusional "didactical" nuclear hobbyist nonsense...

:D

[NickB79]

11. Neither of those probes went beyond Mars-orbit

No one is debating whether or not solar cells work on Mars; they do. What the initial news article was discussing were true deep-space missions: Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto. At Pluto-orbit, solar power is completely unusable. The only power supplies that have proven themselves at ranges beyond Jupiter are those powered by nuclear batteries.

Simply calling a probe "Deep Space 1" doesn't mean it's panels will function in actual deep space.

[Fledermaus]

12. I’m no fan of terrestrial nuclear power but there is no real space exploration without it

One lunar day is 28 earth days. In other words one lunar night last 14 days with temperatures dropping to -357F.

With such extreme temperatures, simple thermonuclear power will work. Decaying isotopes can provide ample heat and power.

[losthills]

13. Of course this is a shameless propaganda piece...

I wonder if any of these Nuclear Rangers have the guts to calculate how much fossil fuel is burned in creating the holy plutonium and in containing the deadly waste produced by creating it. Or the amount of CO2 produced in launching the sacred sattelite into space. Or the possible consequences of sending poison out into the unknown.

No. No guts, no common sense. And no ability to see behind NASA's facade. Worshipers seldom exhibit those attributes....