[Leon]

That would actually be perfect for long range interstellar probes. A constant source of energy for thousands of years, even that small, would propel a craft to reasonably high speeds. Give a spacecraft a few pounds and you'd have something really great.

[jerf]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioisotope_thermoelectric_ge...

(Because it's relevant, not as agreement or disagreement with any particular point.)

[samstave]

So given that, assume you put an array of batteries together, what is the formula for Batteries of qty=N allowing a range of Z AU comm ability to earth / current-AU-distance == distance-from-earth before we will not be even able to receive said comms...??

So how far can they get on N batteries before we cant hear them?

Is there such a thing as "solar-syncronous" and "galactic-syncronous" orbit such that we can deploy a TON of little relays that would speed up comms to each probe to the Earth?

I.E. we have however many in a sphere around the solar system, then at some AU distance out, that the extending probes can contact more efficiently?

Assume that the little diamond batts can only reliably transfer a signal by AU/.00X - then we need to create grids of these little guys at AU/.00X intervals to relay the signals within the power capabilities of the probes...

or is this a stupid thing to say?

---

This begs the questions; what is the best method/technology for sending messages between sensors through space?

We can still hear the Voyagers, how long do their signals take to get here? How much data do they send? How long will their batteries last? How far until they go dark? (they are already like 34 times as far from us as we are from Jupiter.)

How well could these little batteries power the new EM/ION drive: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2015/04/evaluating-nasas-fut...

How much power does that need?

[p1mrx]

If you put a radio at ~10X the distance of Pluto, you can use the sun as a gravitational lens, and communicate with another star using milliwatts of power:

http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=10123

You're still bound by the speed of light, unfortunately.

[ars]

There are far far far better choices for long range interstellar probes. In particular you want a material with much better power density.

The type of decay used by this device (beta decay) is one of the least energetic types.

[meric]

But if it's for interstellar probes, we could use just carbon-14 and keep the diamond...? Unless we're wrapping it in a diamond to protect the electronics.

[kobeya]

The diamond is the carbon-14.

[meric]

I would love to place my comment in a block of coal right now and then set the coal on fire.

[jonathankoren]

would that be a block of C-14 coal? Dirty power! Dirty bomb!