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by jordanb
583 days ago
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A good reason is the lack of availability of the needed isotope (Pu238). The Europa Clipper has a huge array of solar panels instead of an RTG due to the last of the available supply going into the New Horizons spacecraft. Pu238 was a cast-off isotope from nuclear weapons development so it was more readily available during the cold war. We should be happy that it's scarce now. Also solar panels have gotten a lot better than they were when Voyager was launched, but even today anything going out past Saturn is not going to be able to use solar energy. |
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Are any of those candidates or are they just too small or with too poor a mass ratio compared to plutonium RTGs?