Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!calvin!johns
From: johns@calvin.EE.CORNELL.EDU (John Sahr)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: How is Voyager powered?
Message-ID: <1268@calvin.EE.CORNELL.EDU>
Date: 30 Aug 89 02:11:58 GMT
References: <26965@amdcad.AMD.COM> <1910@crdgw1.crd.ge.com> <1989Aug25.170058.6538@cs.rochester.edu> <6087@lynx.UUCP>
Reply-To: johns@calvin.spp.cornell.edu.UUCP (PUT YOUR NAME HERE)
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Organization: Cornell Space Plasma Physics Group
Lines: 32

In article <6087@lynx.UUCP> neal@lynx.UUCP (Neal Woodall) writes:
>
>I read recently (in the Wall Street Journal maybe) about a company that
>wants to market a commercial RTG in the US! The design was their own, was
>based on decay of strontium 90, ...
[]
>[..]envision a larger version that will be about the size of a 5 gallon water
>container (like is used on a water cooler) and will produce about 300
>watts! Now we are talking about some useful power!
[]
>"Who would buy them", you ask? Well, how about survivalists, or people who
>live in very remote areas, or even people who are pissed off at the electric
>utilities (assuming the cost is not prohibitively high). I would buy one of 
>the large ones if it were less than 2500 $ or so.....it would be a great way
>to power a VERY remote mountain retreat.

Why screw around with strontium?  If you are willing to pay $2500 for
300 watts, solar cells can do that right now, including the batteries
to get you through the night.  Several outfits will sell you kits
to do precisely this.

"P"TG's are in use in the Cascade Mountains*, to power remote weather data
gathering stations (rain, snow depth).  They have some solar cell power as
well, but people know what they are, and steal the panels.  Not too many
people know a "P"TG when they see it.  "P" is for propane, by the way.

*and probably elsewhere...

-john
-- 
John Sahr,     Dept. of Electrical Eng., Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853
johns@{alfven,calvin}.ee.cornell.edu,  {rochester,cmcl2}!cornell!calvin!johns
--When the dust settles, each B2 bomber will fund NSF for more than a year--