The US Department of Energy will produce a new é’š-238 fueled nuclear battery for use in NASA deep space exploration missions in 2019, but production will increase slowly, and NASA has not yet determined whether future small deep space exploration projects will be used.é’š-238.
On August 25, US Department of Energy officials told NASA's outer planet assessment team OPAG: At the beginning of 2016, the Energy Department's Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee will restart 27-year isotope production for deep space exploration in the future space station. It is planned to provide nuclear batteries, of which the first batch of isotopes produced early next year will be samples of test nature. Far from the solar system's Jupiter orbit, the detector is too far away from the sun to use solar panels, only relying on the nuclear battery RTG. NASA's Juno, which uses solar panels, will enter the Jupiter orbit in August 2016, which is the farthest track for deep space detectors using solar energy as an energy source.
If the sample is tested, Oak Ridge National Laboratory will start production of a larger batch of approximately 400 grams of isotope in 2019. This production is less than one-third of the 2012 annual revenue approved by the Department of Energy for NASA's annual production, but the Ministry of Energy officials said they will accelerate to 1.5 kilograms per year after the funds are in place, according to current budget estimates. The US Department of Energy will reach this year's production in the mid-2020s. From 2012 to 2015, NASA spent $165 million on the Department of Energy's é’š processing infrastructure, and spent $51.5 million on production equipment and personnel expenses.
é’š-238 nuclear battery is also called radioisotope power supply. This kind of nuclear battery directly converts the thermal energy generated by the decay of radioisotope é’š-238 into electric energy through thermocouple device to provide various instruments for deep space detectors. Has been applied to the New Horizons, Cassini and Curiosity Mars. Take the MMRTG used by the Curiosity Rover as an example. It requires 4.8 kilograms of é’š-238 to output 110W of power.
At present, the United States has 35 kilograms of cesium-238 raw materials for space missions, but only 17 kilograms meets the requirements of the Ministry of Energy for the production of nuclear batteries for deep space detectors. NASA's next-generation Mars will be launched in 2020, and the Mars will use 4 kg of é’š-238. After that, the US Department of Energy may have to reproduce three MMRTG nuclear batteries, which may use some é’š-238 raw materials below the production requirements, but it will only reduce the life of the detector and will not affect the completion of the detection mission. . However, by 2019, US-invented é’š-238 raw materials may increase.
Jim Green, director of NASA's Department of Planetary Science, revealed some deep-space exploration programs that may use nuclear batteries after 2020: in NASA's medium-scale solar system exploration "New Frontier Project," the fourth implementation project will In 2016, the final winner will use the nuclear battery; in addition, NASA hopes to reserve nuclear batteries for the Uranus and Neptune exploration programs implemented in the late 2020s and early 2030s. NASA's small-scale solar system "discovery plan" will make a choice for the 13th implementation project next year. It is expected to launch in 2021 and will not use nuclear batteries. After the 14th project will use nuclear batteries, Green only said NASA. Will consider.
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