Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Cold Fission

[David Buchner <buchner@wcta.net>]

At 01:37 -0500 3/2/01, TeslaTony@aol.com wrote:
>This sounds somewhat like another version I've heard, which used some
>radioactive metal (polonium? I'll have to look it up again...) to provide a
>source of electrons. It didn't work as "cold fission" in the same sense as
>"cold fusion" does, it's really just harnessing the energy from natural decay.


Isn't this what the RTG's on space probes do, with plutonium? They're not a high-efficiency power supply -- just one that works good when it's really cold and really far from the sun, and doesn't need any moving parts.

Maybe somebody else mentioned this, and I missed it...

Obviously impossible to do privately in this reality; it'd have to be in an alternate timeline with nuclear rockets flitting around the solar system and everybody casually carrying firearms all the time...

The powerplant on Voyager 1 was still putting out 314.8 watts in January, according to http://vraptor.jpl.nasa.gov/flteam/weekly-rpts/current.html. That's still more than all my solar panels on a good day.
-- 
David
Osage MN USA - buchner@wcta.net - http://customer.wcta.net/buchner