3 ms·
Galileo... had a resolution of only about 10 meters per pixel. The spacecraft stored those images on a tape recorder with a capacity of 114 megabytes, bu
by hliyan 10y ago
Galileo... had a resolution of only about 10 meters per pixel.
The spacecraft stored those images on a tape recorder with a
capacity of 114 megabytes, but a flawed rewind mode hampered
even that modest device
With the technology we have now, I'm surprised why we're not sending out a lot more tiny (therefore cheaper to launch) flyby probes across the solar system. Apart from the RTG and antenna, a probe today could probably be the size of a TV set.
- mschuster91 10y ago> Apart from the RTG You stated the problem: radionuclides used to supply said RTGs (Pu238) are in shortage (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113223613 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1132236...) because with the fall of the Soviet Union there is no (big) demand for new nuclear weapons, and Pu238 was a "waste by-product" of producing nuke cores.
- vibrolax 10y agoIn late 2015 the US has demonstrated new production of PU 238 for RTG use at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory High Flux Isotope Reactor. This was undertaken in 2013 with NASA funding. https://www.ornl.gov/news/ornl-achieves-milestone-plutonium-238-sample https://www.ornl.gov/news/ornl-achieves-milestone-plutonium-...
- mschuster91 10y agoCool. I hope this gets out of lab stage soon.
- iso-8859-1 10y agoIt will not leave the lab stage, it will continue to be produced at Oak Ridge. See https://www.ornl.gov/news/ornl-achieves-milestone-plutonium-238-sample https://www.ornl.gov/news/ornl-achieves-milestone-plutonium-...
- bluecmd 10y agoA lot of the technology we have on earth wouldn't work in space due to radiation flipping bits
- smaddox 10y agoCitation? I thought I remembered reading that reducing the size of the devices, and therefor the cross-section, more than compensated for the increased susceptibility to bit flipping from a direct hit by a cosmic ray.