Satellites - Power Source: Nuclear Power Source

Since fusion has not yet been perfected, all nuclear power would produce energy by the process of nuclear fission
In nuclear fission, the heavy nucleus of an atom is made to split into two fragments of roughly equivalent masses; this process is accompanied by large releases of energy - it is this process that takes place in nuclear power reactors and in atomic bombs
In satellites, nuclear power is created in Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTG's)
Nuclear power requires more volume then a normal battery; it doesn't require as much surface area as solar cells
Power from a nuclear reactor is, for our purposes, limitless; it won't run out before the satellite becomes useless for other reasons
Nuclear power cannot be used for Earth-orbiting satellites because when its orbit decays, the satellite will fall back to Earth and burn up in the atmosphere, spreading radioactive particles over the Earth
One danger of nuclear power sources is that if the rocket used to launch the satellite explodes before escaping the atmosphere, radioactive particles would be spread over the Earth
This happened in the early days of satellites when a Russian satellite with a nuclear power source crashed in northern Canada, exposing the area to radioactive particles
Nuclear power is effective in space exploration satellites going deep into space because they may travel too far from the sun to use solar panels; since a nuclear power source will continue to generate power for an extremely long time, the satellite will have power for all of its long journey in space
Nuclear power sources are very efficient, very durable, and very expensive

Produced by Galactics.
Comments: galactics@spacesim.org.
Last updated on: 8 August 1997.