Deep space probes use RTGs to supplement the decreasing amount of sunlight they’re going to encounter in the outer solar system

It's expensive for a radiation suit.

And I can't give you love and affection

Cause I dont think I can love gingers

But RTG output gradually decreases overtime as well

Their power output is only as good as the half life of the material they’re powered on

they can last like 39 years tho

30*

Big brain hours

Ye khabli khan is weird

20 minutes to christmas

Well I mean after 15 years their power output has still decreased by half

RTG is what matt Damon sat with in the Martin innit?

ye

@Data Pagan well no...

theoretically yes

the helf-life thing is weird like

I thought half lives were a pretty hard time limit on the usage of an RTG?

Would it be best to make a probe to a neighboring star nuclear powered with retractable panals for use here and reuse there?

​Goodbye.

Like from the instant it’s built, it’s already slowly losing power

I mean yeah it’s all random chance on when a single atom will chose to decay

as far as i can tell it should.

@lolfire If you were female probably

I don't have space for manlove

But you can take that average decay rate per gram of material and extrapolate that out over several days or years and have a solid approximation on its life span

You're assuming people would touch you

Half life talk in here.

Rip my stomach

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