A photo from open sources
American space agency leadership loves create and then intensively advertise ambitious projects for space exploration. According to NASA, astronauts from The United States in the foreseeable future will fly to the moon, Mars, Jupiter, or even beyond the limits of the solar system. However, is it feasible at the current stage of development of American technology and real opportunities? Many scholars say no.
For such missions will require a huge amount of energy, and obviously solar panels on spacecraft skins not enough. Powerful energy sources are needed, and the most important irreplaceable of them, as it suddenly became known, NASA is approaching the end.
A manned spacecraft requires a radioisotope thermoelectric generator that receives energy as a result decay of radioactive plutonium-238. Such batteries incredibly effective and reliable, but they have significant a flaw that could be critical for Americans. The thing is that plutonium-238 is extremely expensive and rare, and its production very difficult and slow.
In 1988, the United States altogether stopped making it. substance, starting to purchase it from the Soviet Union, and then from Russia. Now in all of America there are only 34 kilograms of this radioactive nuclide, however, given its rapid decay, Americans can only use for space flights half of these reserves, and even then if they hurry. Even for mission the Cassini level is no longer enough.
A few years ago, the United States resumed production of plutonium-238, however, so far they have received only 100 grams of the most valuable substance – almost at the laboratory level. The situation is complicated by the fact that in 90s, Americans disassembled their only reactor for similar production on a more or less large scale. Can suggest that if our country stops supplying plutonium-238 to America, she will be left without a space industry. And therefore all talk about flights to Mars, and more recently about the resumption of the lunar program, nothing more than political US declarations. Of course, such plans are also needed for the next financial injections into NASA, otherwise an aerospace agency has long been you just need to disperse …
Moon Mars NASA Russia USA
