All this talk about radiation is pretty interesting and has motivated me to study for the first time in my life, thank you

@Data Pagan Most RTGs use 238Pu, which decays with a half-life of 87.7 years. RTGs using this material will therefore diminish in power output by a factor of 1−0.51/87.74, or 0.787%, per year.

Feeling insecure about it ?

What

What the fuck did I just see

Lolfire gets used for his arsehole, nothing more

But wouldn’t that mean at roughly 42-46 years, the output would be halved?

haha!

The more I read the chat the more my IQ grows

nah

<:bb:449145356123504660>

Good that you admit it

Or am I wrong

@lolfire this nigga out here fucking people at bus stops

Is the thermal output constant that entire time?

@Data Pagan One example is the RTG used by the Voyager probes. In the year 2000, 23 years after production, the radioactive material inside the RTG had decreased in power by 16.6%, i.e. providing 83.4% of its initial output; starting with a capacity of 470 W, after this length of time it would have a capacity of only 392 W. A related loss of power in the Voyager RTGs is the degrading properties of the bi-metallic thermocouples used to convert thermal energy into electrical energy; the RTGs were working at about 67% of their total original capacity instead of the expected 83.4%. By the beginning of 2001, the power generated by the Voyager RTGs had dropped to 315 W for Voyager 1 and to 319 W for Voyager 2.

Well then fuck me I guess

Well shit

I’ve got no idea what dis is about

Soviets used them in light houses placed in the artic circle

But it’s interesting

Oh fuck

Hm?

My understanding was all jacked up

@Red Pulsating Rod Play nice

It's christmas

The thermal output would remain fairly steady most of that time since it’s always decaying at the same rate

its like half-half-half-half-half or summit, its weird and random

Hey guys

I pulled

Pulled what?

Though the more inert material it accumulated over time would certainly leech thermal power from the rest of the system

Or am I wrong there as well

Here's a SNAP RTG on the moon

not sure tbh

i imagine it would depend on the construction.

cause like when you put summit in space, the heat got fuck all place to go 🤷

cause like nigga, no atmosphere

I mean it’s just a solid block of plutonium

can only lose it through infra-red radiation

What’s element 235, I don’t have a table handy