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Radioisotope Power Systems

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5 Min Read After 60 Years, Nuclear Power for Spaceflight is Still Tried and True

Workers install one of three Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs) on the Cassini spacecraft. More ›

Credits:
NASA

Editor’s Note: Originally published on June 21, 2021.

Six decades after the launch of the first nuclear-powered space mission, Transit IV-A, NASA is embarking on a bold future of human exploration and scientific discovery. This future builds on a proud history of safely launching and operating nuclear-powered missions in space.

“Nuclear power has opened the solar system to exploration, allowing us to observe and understand dark, distant planetary bodies that would otherwise be unreachable. And we’re just getting started,” said Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “Future nuclear power and propulsion systems will help revolutionize our understanding of the solar system and beyond and play a crucial role in enabling long-term human missions to the Moon and Mars.”

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Space nuclear power to explore the deepest, dustiest, darkest, and most distant regions of our solar system and beyond. NASA From Humble Beginnings: Nuclear Power Spawns an Age of Scientific Discovery

On June 29, 1961, the John’s Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory launched the Transit IV-A Spacecraft. It was a U.S. Navy navigational satellite with a SNAP-3B radioisotope powered generator producing 2.7 watts of electrical power — about enough to light an LED bulb. Transit IV-A broke an APL mission-duration record and confirmed the Earth’s equator is elliptical. It also set the stage for ground-breaking missions that have extended humanity’s reach across the solar system.

Since 1961, NASA has flown more than 25 missions carrying a nuclear power system through a successful partnership with the Department of Energy (DOE), which provides the power systems and plutonium-238 fuel.

“The department and our national laboratory partners are honored to play a role in powering NASA’s space exploration activities,” said Tracey Bishop, deputy assistant secretary in DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy. “Radioisotope Power Systems are a natural extension of our core mission to create technological solutions that meet the complex energy needs of space research, exploration, and innovation.”

There are only two practical ways to provide long-term electrical power in space: the light of the sun or heat from a nuclear source.

We couldn’t do the mission without it. No other technology exists to power a mission this far away from the Sun, even today.

Alan Stern

Principal Investigator, NASA’s New Horizons Mission to Pluto and Beyond

“As missions move farther away from the Sun to dark, dusty, and harsh environments, like Jupiter, Pluto, and Titan, they become impossible or extremely limited without nuclear power,” said Leonard Dudzinski, chief technologist for NASA’s Planetary Science Division and program executive for Radioisotope Power.

That’s where Radioisotope Power Systems, or RPS, come in. They are a category of power systems that convert heat generated by the decay of plutonium-238 fuel into electricity.

“These systems are reliable and efficient,” said June Zakrajsek, manager for NASA’s Radioisotope Power Systems Program office at Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. “They operate continuously over long-duration space missions regardless of sunlight, temperature, charged particle radiation, or surface conditions like thick clouds or dust. They’ve allowed us to explore from the Sun to Pluto and beyond.”

RPS powered the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package. They’ve sustained Voyager 1 and 2 since 1977, and they kept Cassini-Huygens’ instruments warm as it explored frigid Saturn and its moon Titan.

Today, a Multi-Mission Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG) powers the Perseverance rover, which is captivating the nation as it searches for signs of ancient life on Mars, and a single RTG is sustaining New Horizons as it ventures on its way out of the solar system 15 years after its launch.

“The RTG was and still is crucial to New Horizons,” said Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute. “We couldn’t do the mission without it. No other technology exists to power a mission this far away from the Sun, even today.”

New Horizons carries seven scientific instruments and a radioisotope thermoelectric generator. The spacecraft weighs 1,060 pounds. NASA/JHUAPL Great Things to Come: Science and Human Exploration

Dragonfly, which is set to launch in 2028, is the next mission with plans to use an MMRTG. Part of NASA’s New Frontiers program, Dragonfly is an octocopter designed to explore and collect samples on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, an ocean world with a dense, hazy atmosphere.

“RPS is really an enabling technology,” said APL’s Zibi Turtle, principal investigator for the upcoming Dragonfly mission. “Early missions like Voyager, Galileo, and Cassini that relied on RPS have completely changed our understanding and given us a geography of the distant solar system…Cassini gave us our first close-up look at the surface of Titan.”

According to Turtle, the MMRTG serves two purposes on Dragonfly: power output to charge the lander’s battery and waste heat to keep its instruments and electronics warm.

“Flight is a very high-power activity. We’ll use a battery for flight and science activities and recharge the battery using the MMRTG,” said Turtle. “The waste heat from the power system is a key aspect of our thermal design. The surface of Titan is very cold, but we can keep the interior of the lander warm and cozy using the heat from the MMRTG.”

As the scientific community continues to benefit from RPS, NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate is investing in new technology using reactors and low-enriched uranium fuel to enable a robust human presence on the Moon and eventually human missions to Mars.

Astronauts will need plentiful and continuous power to survive the long lunar nights and explore the dark craters on the Moon’s South Pole. A fission surface power system could provide enough juice to power robust operations. NASA is leading an effort, working with the DOE and industry to design a fission power system for a future lunar demonstration that will pave the way for base camps on the Moon and Mars.

NASA has also thought about viable ways to reduce the time it takes to travel to Mars, including nuclear propulsion systems.

As NASA advances its bold vision of exploration and scientific discovery in space, it benefits from 60 years of the safe use of nuclear power during spaceflight. Sixty years of enlightenment that all started with a little satellite called Transit IV-A.

News Media Contact
Jan Wittry
NASA’s Glenn Research Center

3 min read

Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Shauntina Lilly, a NASA Glenn public affairs officer, smiles as she speaks to students about NASA’s available internships and educational resources during the STEM Goes Red for Girls event at Great Lakes Science Center, home of the NASA Glenn Visitor Center, on October 21.Credit: NASA/Debbie Welch

NASA is making event plans for the 2025 calendar year, and we want to pencil you in! We are looking for the Midwest’s biggest and best community events with the broadest audiences to share NASA’s content and raise awareness of the agency’s most exciting aeronautics and space missions. NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland is leading the agency’s efforts to inspire the Midwest through engagement.

Learn How to Submit a Proposal

Interested organizations can submit an event proposal to Glenn now through Nov. 18, 2024. Those selected will receive notification via email by Dec. 31, 2024. Through this collaboration, selected organizations will gain access to NASA exhibits and artifacts, hands-on demonstrations, STEM and internship opportunities for students and educators, NASA’s innovative technology, and experts that align to the topics and themes of their events.

Eligibility Requirements

NASA is seeking:

• Organizations with direct community connections and an established event that reaches diverse audiences. 
• Events scheduled to occur between Jan. 1, 2025, and Dec. 31, 2025.
• Events that are mutually beneficial – where a NASA presence will enhance the event experience and raise awareness of NASA’s contributions to the advancement of aeronautics and space exploration.

Selected organizations must agree to the following:

• Attend virtual planning meetings through an online business communication platform.
• Work with NASA Glenn’s Office of Communications when coordinating marketing, media communications, and logistics as described in the event proposal.
• Adhere to NASA Media Usage Guidelines for NASA media and logos.
• Provide final attendance data within two weeks of the conclusion of the event including the following:
  • Number of attendees
  • Estimated percentage of attendees from underrepresented audiences

Submitting a Proposal

All proposals are to be submitted through the online proposal form. Proposals must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. Eastern on Nov. 18, 2024. Only proposals submitted online will be accepted.

Proposal Review Process

Proposals will be evaluated and scored, and selections will be made using the following criteria:

• Estimated audience size.
• Percentage of audience from underserved and/or underrepresented communities as defined below.
  • For purposes of this solicitation, underserved and/or underrepresented communities include Black, Latino, and Indigenous and Native American persons, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and other persons of color; members of religious minorities; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) persons; persons with disabilities; persons who live in rural areas; and persons otherwise adversely affected by persistent poverty or inequality. (Source: NASA’s Mission Equity).
• Alignment of the program’s goals and objectives to those of this opportunity.
• Plans to maximize audience participation through marketing and media communications.
• Evidence of historical attendance at this or similar events hosted by the proposing organization.

Proposing organizations will be notified of their selection status by Dec. 31, 2024.

Point of Contact

If you have questions about this opportunity or the online proposal form, contact NASA Glenn’s Office of Communications: GRC-Public-Engagement@mail.nasa.gov.

Timeline

Solicitation posted: Oct. 23, 2024
Proposal form URL: https://osirris.grc.nasa.gov/request/request.cfm
Proposal submission deadline: Nov. 18, 2024
Notification of event selection: Dec. 13, 2024 

Background

NASA’s Glenn Research Center designs, develops, and tests innovative technology to revolutionize air travel, advance space exploration, and improve life on Earth. As one of 10 NASA centers, and the only one in the Midwest, Glenn is a vital contributor to the region’s economy and culture. Many NASA missions have Glenn contributions, and every U.S. aircraft has NASA Glenn technology on board, making flight cleaner, safer, and quieter.

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Supermassive black holes can expel jets of material so vast and powerful that they may shape the large-scale structure of the cosmos

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Nestled on the slopes of Cerro La Negra at an elevation of 13,000 feet is an unusual-looking observatory. Known as the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory, it looks like a tightly packed collection of grain silos, which is essentially what it is. But rather than holding grain, the silos are each filled with 188,000 liters of water and four photomultiplier tubes. While it’s an unusual setup, it’s what you need to observe high-energy gamma rays from deep space.

Rather than observing the gamma rays directly, the observatory uses an effect known as [Cherenkov radiation. Essentially, when a high-energy gamma ray strikes Earth’s atmosphere, it triggers the emission of a shower of particles moving at nearly light speed. They move so fast that they travel faster than light can move through water. So when these particles pass through a water silo, they emit Cherenkov radiation. HAWC is particularly sensitive to TeV gamma rays, which are the highest energy gamma rays produced in the cosmos. And with such a large number of detectors, HAWC can pinpoint the origin of these TeV gamma rays better than any other observatory, as a recent study shows.

It’s a bit rare for a high-energy gamma ray to strike Earth, so the team gathered seven years of observations, capturing 100 gamma ray events, each with an energy of more than 100 TeV. While that doesn’t sound like a lot, it is enough data for the team to determine their origin. The particles are coming from the center of our galaxy! Of course, many of you won’t be the least surprised. After all, there is a supermassive black hole in that area, so naturally it would produce high-energy particles. But this discovery helps us understand what’s going on.

The HAWC observatory seen in 2014. Credit: Wikipedia user Jordanagoodman

In order for TeV gamma rays to reach us across 30,000 light years, our galactic black hole must produce even higher energy particles. Specifically, it must produce protons in the PeV energy range. Peta electron volts, which is a thousand times more energy than the gamma rays we see. These PeV protons then collide with interstellar gas molecules to produce gamma rays. This means there must be a mystery PeVatron source. We know that PeV protons can be produced in the most violent astrophysical phenomena, such as supernovae and black hole mergers, but these can’t explain what we observe.

To further understand the source, the team looks forward to the construction of the Southern Wide-field Gamma-ray Observatory (SWGO), which will be a facility similar to HAWC, but in the Atacama region of northern Chile. By combining observations from both, we should be able to localize the galactic source of PeV protons.

Reference: Albert, A., et al. “Observation of the Galactic Center PeVatron beyond 100 TeV with HAWC.” The Astrophysical Journal Letters 973.1 (2024): L34.

The post There's a Particle Accelerator at the Center of the Milky Way appeared first on Universe Today.