Last year mission planners were concerned about a lack of plutonium fuel for the craft's
radioisotope thermoelectric generators because of a work shutdown at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Included in NASA plans are the nuclear rocket to Mars; a new generation of
Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs) for interplanetary missions; nuclear-powered robotic Mars rovers to be launched in 2003 and 2009; and the nuclear powered mission called Pluto-Kuiper Belt scheduled for January, 2006.
Radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) translate that heat to electricity.
The current generation of
radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTG) uses a radiatively coupled unicouple configuration.
and NASA call "
radioisotope thermoelectric generators," which supply on-board electric power, and, in Project Galileo, less than a pound will also be distributed to 130 "radioisotope heater units" to keep instrumentation warm.
There would also be the requirement of a reliable, steady supply of energy, so the use of
radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) would be preferred.