45 ms·
They'd need some very big RTGs to last that long, and I don't think we manufacture plutonium at the necessary volumes for that anymore.
by AprilArcus 2y ago
They'd need some very big RTGs to last that long, and I don't think we manufacture plutonium at the necessary volumes for that anymore.
- KennyBlanken 2y agoLast I remember, RTG manufacturing was very constrained, period. And that was before Russia took a massive shit in Ukraine and got themselves embargo'd by most of the rest of the developed world.
- ars 2y agoI would use Americium-241 instead, longer half life and much more availability. Lower power, but a telescope like this does not need constant power, so some kind of short term power storage (capacitor I would assume, or some kind of ultra long life battery) could handle that.
- fsckboy 2y agoin terms of the potential plutonium shortage, wikipedia: Americium-241 is not synthesized directly from uranium – the most common reactor material – but from the plutonium isotope 239. The latter needs to be produced first