Radioisotope Power Systems - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Radioisotope Power Systems write by National Research Council. This book was released on 2009-08-14. Radioisotope Power Systems available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Spacecraft require electrical energy. This energy must be available in the outer reaches of the solar system where sunlight is very faint. It must be available through lunar nights that last for 14 days, through long periods of dark and cold at the higher latitudes on Mars, and in high-radiation fields such as those around Jupiter. Radioisotope power systems (RPSs) are the only available power source that can operate unconstrained in these environments for the long periods of time needed to accomplish many missions, and plutonium-238 (238Pu) is the only practical isotope for fueling them. Plutonium-238 does not occur in nature. The committee does not believe that there is any additional 238Pu (or any operational 238Pu production facilities) available anywhere in the world.The total amount of 238Pu available for NASA is fixed, and essentially all of it is already dedicated to support several pending missions-the Mars Science Laboratory, Discovery 12, the Outer Planets Flagship 1 (OPF 1), and (perhaps) a small number of additional missions with a very small demand for 238Pu. If the status quo persists, the United States will not be able to provide RPSs for any subsequent missions.
Power from Radioisotopes
Power from Radioisotopes - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Power from Radioisotopes write by Robert L. Mead. This book was released on 1966. Power from Radioisotopes available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle.
The Design and Engineering of Curiosity
The Design and Engineering of Curiosity - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook The Design and Engineering of Curiosity write by Emily Lakdawalla. This book was released on 2018-03-27. The Design and Engineering of Curiosity available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. This book describes the most complex machine ever sent to another planet: Curiosity. It is a one-ton robot with two brains, seventeen cameras, six wheels, nuclear power, and a laser beam on its head. No one human understands how all of its systems and instruments work. This essential reference to the Curiosity mission explains the engineering behind every system on the rover, from its rocket-powered jetpack to its radioisotope thermoelectric generator to its fiendishly complex sample handling system. Its lavishly illustrated text explains how all the instruments work -- its cameras, spectrometers, sample-cooking oven, and weather station -- and describes the instruments' abilities and limitations. It tells you how the systems have functioned on Mars, and how scientists and engineers have worked around problems developed on a faraway planet: holey wheels and broken focus lasers. And it explains the grueling mission operations schedule that keeps the rover working day in and day out.
ALSEP Termination Report
ALSEP Termination Report - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook ALSEP Termination Report write by James R. Bates. This book was released on 1979. ALSEP Termination Report available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle.
Radioisotope Power Systems
Radioisotope Power Systems - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Radioisotope Power Systems write by National Research Council. This book was released on 2009-07-14. Radioisotope Power Systems available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Spacecraft require electrical energy. This energy must be available in the outer reaches of the solar system where sunlight is very faint. It must be available through lunar nights that last for 14 days, through long periods of dark and cold at the higher latitudes on Mars, and in high-radiation fields such as those around Jupiter. Radioisotope power systems (RPSs) are the only available power source that can operate unconstrained in these environments for the long periods of time needed to accomplish many missions, and plutonium-238 (238Pu) is the only practical isotope for fueling them. Plutonium-238 does not occur in nature. The committee does not believe that there is any additional 238Pu (or any operational 238Pu production facilities) available anywhere in the world.The total amount of 238Pu available for NASA is fixed, and essentially all of it is already dedicated to support several pending missions-the Mars Science Laboratory, Discovery 12, the Outer Planets Flagship 1 (OPF 1), and (perhaps) a small number of additional missions with a very small demand for 238Pu. If the status quo persists, the United States will not be able to provide RPSs for any subsequent missions.
