Please look up an "RTG" or a Radioisotope thermoelectric generator, they are not batteries. That is what powers spacecraft like Voyager 2. Voyager 2 will lose power likely within the next few years due to the decay of the elements producing heat to power it. RTG's not only power, but heat the spacecraft with it's waste heat, well above the operational ranges of the few instruments still online. RTG's are very inefficient because they convert heat into electric which is at about 10% efficiency. When I ran the numbers on how much you'd need to power something like a 50KW car motor, you'd need about a ton of plutonium-238 or comparable material to power it, not counting the extra space needed for containment and conversion. Consider the cost of materials like this and then wonder why there aren't any cars powered by "batteries" like these.
Yeah I know about the radioisotope generators. So how long will they last? I know that nuclear powered aircraft carriers have to be refueled every 20 years. So we are to assume they had enough Pu-238 onboard to power the scientific equipment and course changing propulsion for 46 years?
That still leaves the question of how those very weak radio signals pass through the radiation of the Van Allen Radiation Belt. Even NASA admits they are impenetrable. - The Van Allen belts are a collection of charged particles, gathered in place by Earth’s magnetic field. They can wax and wane in response to incoming energy from the sun, sometimes swelling up enough to expose satellites in low-Earth orbit to damaging radiation. - generally the inner belt stretches from 400 to 6,000 miles above Earth's surface and the outer belt stretches from 8,400 to 36,000 miles above Earth's surface.
Nuclear powered aircraft carriers have nuclear reactors that exploit the process of nuclear fission, where uranium nuclei break into two fragment nuclei (of other elements) and neutrons, and release energy in the process. RTG's powered by plutonium are simply depending on plutonium's radioactivity, release of alpha particles and energy. Two completely different processes.
There is no reason why radio signals cannot pass through the Van Allen belts. The "impenetrability" applies only to electrons within the belts, not to radio signals or space probes. You ought to read your reference before posting its URL.
You are correct that I don't believe most of what they say, but just like every other un-Constitutional gov agency occasionally they accidentally slip up and say something that reveals their past lies. They think the unwashed masses aren't smart enough to remember what they've said before.
No, the person writing the caption is a nitwit. For one thing, he (whoever he is) misspelled "past" as "passed." Evidence of English not being his native language? And for the crucial thing, the engineer spelled out explicitly that the Orion capsule was going to pass through the Van Allen belts twice, and that doing so requires shielding from the high energy particles. Since they did it before, many times with geostationary and Molniya satellites, and a number of times with human passengers on the Apollo missions, this is no surprise. I think you should have listened to the video before you jumped on the bandwagon.
So, the engineer said quite specifically that they were going to pass through the Van Allen belts with safety because they are doing their due diligence to make sure that the design works as intended. This is the OPPOSITE of the caption.
The voyager probe has not undergone any major course changes or propulsion since the 1980's other than a test in 2017 to see if the thrusters even still worked. It uses chemical hydrazine thrusters. This does not use any electricity beyond the signal to activate the thruster.
RTG's work by harvesting the heat from the decay of a radioactive element. At launch V2 had a max wattage output of 470 watts. This is less than a toaster or microwave uses, and as the mission has continued, it's necessitated turning off various instruments because the total available power becomes less and less due to the decay of the element in the RTG.
The half life of Plutonium 238 is approximately 90 years as it decays into uranium-234, and later into lead-204. As more of the plutonium decays, the available wattage to the craft drops, until eventually it will not produce enough power to even run the most basic instruments. This is expected to occur within the next few years.
Nuclear reactors such as those on a carrier actually cause a chemical change in the element in the radioactive material during the fission process. The amount of energy produced in these reactions is in the megawatt range, and naturally will burn up your material faster than just passively collecting waste heat. As most electrical systems on a carrier are "mission critical" it will require refueling well before the materials are fully spent to ensure no disruption to power.
Your linked article references the van allen belt that blocks high-energy electron activity. Radio waves are of lower frequency and longer wavelength than the high energy particles it usually traps and thus make it through relatively unscathed, radio waves, light, etc are also photonic in nature and are not significantly affected by the earths magnetosphere.
Reminds me of VGER - Star Trek https://youtu.be/gxAaVqdz_Vk
This is the 2012 movie "Battleship".
I always thought that was stupid.
Please look up an "RTG" or a Radioisotope thermoelectric generator, they are not batteries. That is what powers spacecraft like Voyager 2. Voyager 2 will lose power likely within the next few years due to the decay of the elements producing heat to power it. RTG's not only power, but heat the spacecraft with it's waste heat, well above the operational ranges of the few instruments still online. RTG's are very inefficient because they convert heat into electric which is at about 10% efficiency. When I ran the numbers on how much you'd need to power something like a 50KW car motor, you'd need about a ton of plutonium-238 or comparable material to power it, not counting the extra space needed for containment and conversion. Consider the cost of materials like this and then wonder why there aren't any cars powered by "batteries" like these.
Yeah I know about the radioisotope generators. So how long will they last? I know that nuclear powered aircraft carriers have to be refueled every 20 years. So we are to assume they had enough Pu-238 onboard to power the scientific equipment and course changing propulsion for 46 years?
That still leaves the question of how those very weak radio signals pass through the radiation of the Van Allen Radiation Belt. Even NASA admits they are impenetrable. - The Van Allen belts are a collection of charged particles, gathered in place by Earth’s magnetic field. They can wax and wane in response to incoming energy from the sun, sometimes swelling up enough to expose satellites in low-Earth orbit to damaging radiation. - generally the inner belt stretches from 400 to 6,000 miles above Earth's surface and the outer belt stretches from 8,400 to 36,000 miles above Earth's surface.
https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/van-allen-probes-spot-impenetrable-barrier-in-space
Nuclear powered aircraft carriers have nuclear reactors that exploit the process of nuclear fission, where uranium nuclei break into two fragment nuclei (of other elements) and neutrons, and release energy in the process. RTG's powered by plutonium are simply depending on plutonium's radioactivity, release of alpha particles and energy. Two completely different processes.
There is no reason why radio signals cannot pass through the Van Allen belts. The "impenetrability" applies only to electrons within the belts, not to radio signals or space probes. You ought to read your reference before posting its URL.
You are correct that I don't believe most of what they say, but just like every other un-Constitutional gov agency occasionally they accidentally slip up and say something that reveals their past lies. They think the unwashed masses aren't smart enough to remember what they've said before.
NASA engineer admits they can’t get passed the Van Allen Belts
No, the person writing the caption is a nitwit. For one thing, he (whoever he is) misspelled "past" as "passed." Evidence of English not being his native language? And for the crucial thing, the engineer spelled out explicitly that the Orion capsule was going to pass through the Van Allen belts twice, and that doing so requires shielding from the high energy particles. Since they did it before, many times with geostationary and Molniya satellites, and a number of times with human passengers on the Apollo missions, this is no surprise. I think you should have listened to the video before you jumped on the bandwagon.
So, the engineer said quite specifically that they were going to pass through the Van Allen belts with safety because they are doing their due diligence to make sure that the design works as intended. This is the OPPOSITE of the caption.
The voyager probe has not undergone any major course changes or propulsion since the 1980's other than a test in 2017 to see if the thrusters even still worked. It uses chemical hydrazine thrusters. This does not use any electricity beyond the signal to activate the thruster.
RTG's work by harvesting the heat from the decay of a radioactive element. At launch V2 had a max wattage output of 470 watts. This is less than a toaster or microwave uses, and as the mission has continued, it's necessitated turning off various instruments because the total available power becomes less and less due to the decay of the element in the RTG.
The half life of Plutonium 238 is approximately 90 years as it decays into uranium-234, and later into lead-204. As more of the plutonium decays, the available wattage to the craft drops, until eventually it will not produce enough power to even run the most basic instruments. This is expected to occur within the next few years.
Nuclear reactors such as those on a carrier actually cause a chemical change in the element in the radioactive material during the fission process. The amount of energy produced in these reactions is in the megawatt range, and naturally will burn up your material faster than just passively collecting waste heat. As most electrical systems on a carrier are "mission critical" it will require refueling well before the materials are fully spent to ensure no disruption to power.
Your linked article references the van allen belt that blocks high-energy electron activity. Radio waves are of lower frequency and longer wavelength than the high energy particles it usually traps and thus make it through relatively unscathed, radio waves, light, etc are also photonic in nature and are not significantly affected by the earths magnetosphere.
This is comms.
This is comms.