Talk:Plutonium-238

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Space missions that used Plutonium-238

List is incomplete, please add to it

Spacecraft	Launch date	Mission	Amount used
Tansit-4A	1961-06-29	U.S. Navy Navigation
New Horizons	2006-01-19	Flyby of Pluto	11 kilograms (24 lb)
Curiosity	2011-11-26	Mars rover	3.5 kilograms (7.7 lb)

Additional sources

Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator Development
Using Nuclear Fuel for Future NASA Missions Gets Boost
Kramer, David (2011). "Shortage of plutonium-238 jeopardizes NASA's planetary science missions". Physics Today. 64: 24. doi:10.1063/1.3541938.
Planetary exploration’s radioactive decay
NASA Science Officials: News Not Entirely Bleak for Mars, PU-238 Restart Still Needed
US Pu-238 Production Remains Unfunded
Assessment of Plutonium-238 Production Alternatives
Role and prospects
Maharik, Michael; Fischhoff, Baruch (1993). "Public views of using nuclear energy sources in space missions". Space Policy. 9 (2): 99. doi:10.1016/0265-9646(93)90023-3.
Aftergood, Steven (1989). "Background on space nuclear power". Science & Global Security. 1: 93. doi:10.1080/08929888908426325.

Wiki Education assignment: Cold War Science

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation–supported course assignment, between 18 January 2022 and 6 May 2022. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Barr0069 (article contribs).

theory

Latest comment: 2 months ago1 comment1 person in discussion

The article says: most of which was taken to Los Alamos for theoretical work there. Note that you need actual material for experiments, but not theoretical work. Now, you do need the results of experiments to do theory, which might be what they did. Though I would expect that LBL had more experimental equipment at the time. Gah4 (talk) 23:15, 24 July 2026 (UTC)Reply