Article View: sci.space
Article #7914Re: Payload of shuttle flight directly after last Challenger.
From: Michael J. Farren
Date: Sun, 07 Feb 1988 00:44
Date: Sun, 07 Feb 1988 00:44
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In article <2728@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> kit@athena.mit.edu (Chris D. Peterson) writes:
>In fact the upcomming
>Galileo mission to Jupiter uses nuclear fission for its power systems.
The power system for Galileo does NOT use fission - at least, not in the
sense that is implied when you say "reactor". There is no chain reaction
involved - the power is generated by thermovoltaic devices driven by the
heat of Plutonium's natural breakdown processes. While this is, technically,
a fission process, it's not one which requires any external control, and
not one which poses any particular danger - the Pu is sealed inside VERY
strong armored capsules, and the chance of it being released into the
environment is minuscule.
--
Michael J. Farren | "INVESTIGATE your point of view, don't just
{ucbvax, uunet, hoptoad}! | dogmatize it! Reflect on it and re-evaluate
unisoft!gethen!farren | it. You may want to change your mind someday."
gethen!farren@lll-winken.llnl.gov ----- Tom Reingold, from alt.flame
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!mnetor!uunet!unisoft!gethen!farren From: farren@gethen.UUCP (Michael J. Farren) Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.space.shuttle Subject: Re: Payload of shuttle flight directly after last Challenger. Message-ID: <656@gethen.UUCP> Date: 7 Feb 88 00:44:44 GMT References: <347@flatline.UUCP> <2728@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> Reply-To: farren@gethen.UUCP (Michael J. Farren) Organization: There's Unix there in Oakland Lines: 18