Xref: utzoo sci.space:4516 sci.space.shuttle:529
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!unisoft!gethen!farren
From: farren@gethen.UUCP (Michael J. Farren)
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Payload of shuttle flight directly after last Challenger.
Message-ID: <656@gethen.UUCP>
Date: 7 Feb 88 00:44:44 GMT
References: <347@flatline.UUCP> <2728@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU>
Reply-To: farren@gethen.UUCP (Michael J. Farren)
Organization: There's Unix there in Oakland
Lines: 18

In article <2728@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> kit@athena.mit.edu (Chris D. Peterson) writes:
>In fact the upcomming
>Galileo mission to Jupiter uses nuclear fission for its power systems.

The power system for Galileo does NOT use fission - at least, not in the
sense that is implied when you say "reactor".  There is no chain reaction
involved - the power is generated by thermovoltaic devices driven by the
heat of Plutonium's natural breakdown processes.  While this is, technically,
a fission process, it's not one which requires any external control, and
not one which poses any particular danger - the Pu is sealed inside VERY
strong armored capsules, and the chance of it being released into the
environment is minuscule.

-- 
Michael J. Farren             | "INVESTIGATE your point of view, don't just 
{ucbvax, uunet, hoptoad}!     | dogmatize it!  Reflect on it and re-evaluate
        unisoft!gethen!farren | it.  You may want to change your mind someday."
gethen!farren@lll-winken.llnl.gov ----- Tom Reingold, from alt.flame