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Some space craft have actually had full reactors on them believe it or not.
by RL_Quine 7y ago
Some space craft have actually had full reactors on them believe it or not.
- nickpinkston 7y agoChecks out - I didn't realize we actually did fission... in... spaaaaace! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_space#Fission_systems https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_space#Fission...
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- wcoenen 7y agoThere were indeed real nuclear reactors with thermoelectrics being launched in the cold war. However, thermoelectrics have an efficiency well below 10% (maybe a bit better with this improvement but not much). For that reason, future reactors in space will likely use Stirling engines instead.
- mechhacker 7y agoCorrect. Space stirling designs* (and tested engines) have been much more performant than the RTG designs *I spent part of my career working on these devices and saw many of them running in labs