[Interview+] Improving Nuclear Power Generators for Future Space Missions

Thanks Fraser, great interview.

Thanks for this great video! I used to be wary of the interviews - spoilt by the delicious condensed Space Bites or Q&A. But they are always packed with information. I enjoyed every bit of it. BTW, Sterling can also work with just a double membrane, cancelling vibration. I wonder if humanity will once be able to create an element/isotope generator with only arbitrary matter and energy for input. Would be usefull on generationships.

Great interview

The 1977 ban on Plutonium production in Canada seems (to me anyways) to be a block in a grate space energy resource. Canada has many elements that can advance space exploration. I do understand why we are not doing more ugg. I do get that we are only 158 years old, but I wish for us as a country, to do better in our science and exploration. I have always explained to my kids Canada is the richest country in the world for many reasons, fresh water, lumber, land mass, and minerals. Come on Canada let's do better. Sorry for the rant but I had to say it :)

Interesting, I wonder how many RTGs are sitting on the ocean floor powering various listening devices. The Planetary Society was very active in getting Pu-238 production going again about 10 years ago, I hope that doesn't stop again with the proposed funding levels... then we can kiss anything beyond Jupiter goodbye...

Why can't the power plant utilize all the radiation for power instead of allowing gama rays out and require shielding? Why isn't the thing that gets hot from the radiation capturing all the radiation as heat?

This was fascinating to me. I have always been interested in the RTG from Voyager and Cassini. And to think about using other materials, Curium, Americium, Strontium, and even Carbon 14, well that was a kick. Very interesting about the different materials need different shielding, I would have thought Plutonium would have needed all sorts of shielding, but Tyler says not as much as many other materials. I visited JPL and that was my question, "Who puts the RTG on the rover before it launches?" Answer "Volunteers". As for Sterling engines in spacecraft, I am just thinking we humans should be able to come up with something better than reciprocating pistons and crankshafts. Keeping the craft on a set course could be difficult what with this thumping going on inside. Yeah, need 2 pistons, but balanced just perfect or there is going to be shaking. And the wear and tear from pistons starting and stopping. But undersea, sounds like a great idea. for a sterling PS, if you can find guests with knowledge of Cassini, I would love to hear from them. The navigators were just incredible, fly their ship through the Enceladus plume, come on now!

I stopped being interested in what he had to say when his default for looking up how an isotope is created was a text spewing algorithm with no possible regard for the truth (held myself back from using the academic term because you keep your stuff all ages and I respect that and you).

The only things that saved this interview were your skills and persistence Fraser. If this was a publicly traded company and I was a stock holder, I would not want this individual as the company’s public facing spokesperson. He was all over the place and not enlightening. Too many words expressing too many disjointed thought fragments failing to convey a cohesive message.

Your guest said Americium was like Plutonium, is it fissionable?

Love you're interviews. They just make the future of space so exciting and optimistic about what it might become.

On the subject of thermoelectric power generators, what about exploiting the energy available at specific destinations. Could the icy moon Europa levitate a magnet while moving across the moons surface generate its own electricity passing through Jupiter’s magnetic field. No need for any other source of energy by extracting it from Jupiter’s magnetic field. Besides, if the spacecraft is made to levitate because of the very cold temperatures then a minimal amount of propulsion is required.