Nuclear Power For Deep Space Missions

F. J. Gardner. (1994), JBIS, 47, pp.215-228

Refcode: 1994.47.215

Abstract:

The missions undertaken by Pioneer 10 and 11 and by Voyager 1 and 2, deep into regions of the solar system where solar insolation is too weak to be effective, were made possible by nuclear power. Radioisotope thermo-electric generators (RTGs) provide the 60 to 600 W required by the deep space probes such as Pioneer 10 and 11, Voyager 1 and 2, Galileo and Ulysses (fig. 1).