Emily's blog entry from today seems not to have been mentioned here yet: http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001285/
This would be absolutely huge, if it pans out. From the blog:
You can read details of the announcement at http://nspires.nasaprs.com/external/viewrepositorydocument/cmdocumentid=113068/C.26%20DSC%20Mission%20Concepts.pdf. Net: free stirling engine with 280W at beginning of mission (6720 watt-hours/day compared to Opportunities' current 635.) Proposals must be enabled by the use of nuclear; can't just substitute solar for nuclear.
My concern with this offer is that I'm not sure how many mission opportunities it really opens up. Phoenix busts the Discovery budget and already had a pre-built spacecraft and entry shell. New Horizons (about the simplest outer planets mission possible) is 2X the Discovery budget. So other than a rover in the polar craters on the moon, what missions are enabled that will fit within the Discovery budget? It's that money thing that is tripping up my imagination. Apparently not the scientific communities since I've been told that dozens of ideas were submitted.
So, I'd like to encourage everyone else to show how limited my imagination is. What mission capabilities would this enable that would fit withing Discovery budget?
Moving parts. Stirling prototypes have run for years in Earth labs, but have yet to run in space for any long duration. Even the ion thrusters on Dawn (actually their immediate forebears) have flown before on Deep Space 1. This would as much a New Millenium type technology mission as a Discovery mission.
The ASRG is being supplied gratis and the cost cap is $450 million to include launch. Discovery / Scout implies (politically) at least the Dawn levels of US content, e.g., the launch, at least 1 major instrument, and the spacecraft itself. Using Dawn as an example, get an ESA country or Japan to supply as many major instruments that they can contribute.
US launch in the timeframe mean an EELV which will run at least $130 million going by the recent NASA contracts. Assuming the cheapest EELV gives twice the payload capability as a DeltaIIH opens up sizable missions from Mercury to Mars and perhaps beyond if Earth gravity assists are used. So you have $320 million for the spacecraft plus 1 instrument plus operations costs, plus 2 or 3 more instruments from international partners.
The ASRG needs to be an enabler, so someplace with little or no sunlight, so here are a few rather derivative missions:
A Phoenix which operates thru the Martian polar winter.
A New Horizon on the 2016 Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, KBO flyby trajectory mentioned in the OPAG thread with intenational partners supplying a simple probe for Saturn or Neptune might be possible if an international partner would also supply the launch, or using Earth gravity assists with trying to reduce long flight time operations cost with increased use of hibernation during cruise.
A Dawn that goes out to the Trojans or possibly even Chiron.
I would really, really like to see the Jupiter > Saturn > Neptune > KBO mission, even if it doesn't have an atmospheric probe (but it should!). Since the booster only has to get the craft to Jupiter and crazy speed (probably) isn't needed, then we could probably do with a much cheaper launcher than New Horizons used. Even better if another nation launches it. Which means they would also help pick up the costs of the instruments. So maybe, although I don't know if Stern will want to wait that long (2016 for launch).
Another possibility would be the Jupiter Trojans, although those could be solar powered (just).
Other ideas?
Didn't find a suitable thread and didn't want start a new one, so I'll post it here.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30621668/
That's excellent news, thanks! I saw a version of this article yesterday that described the shortage, but no mention of DoE's intent to resume production.
There's an http://futureplanets.blogspot.com/2009/05/interesting-charts.html about the restart of Pu-238 production over at the Future Planetary Exploration blog. In particular, it contains these three charts:
Not sure where to put this - hope here's OK.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091004020806.htm
A Centaur mission would be really cool. So would a long-term lunar-south-pole-crater mission, especially if LCROSS finds water there.
Zero G?
I don't know how significant it is, but I don't think cosmic rays can be produced in Earth testing.
http://www.spacenews.com/policy/pu-238-restart-denied-with-final-passage-energy-bill.html
There may be some hope from private industry:
http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/23959/?nlid=2550
Medical device makers using medical isotopes to make long-lived batteries. The buzzword is betavoltaics.
No doubt the currents from these things are pretty small, though.
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