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Does China have the capabilities and reserves of radioactive material to make probes with RTGs?
by Scaevolus 13y ago
Does China have the capabilities and reserves of radioactive material to make probes with RTGs?
- sp332 13y agoIt has a radioisotope heating unit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yutu_%28rover%29#Specifications https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yutu_%28rover%29#Specification...
- lutusp 13y agoOnline accounts say there's a radiation source for heating during the lunar night, but it seems one of the solar panels used for normal operations didn't fold up properly (by folding up these panels are closer to the heat source) before the sun went down, and that exposed component froze and was ruined, which sealed the spacecraft's fate. Source: http://www.dvice.com/2014-2-12/chinas-jade-rabbit-lunar-rover-freezes-death-moon http://www.dvice.com/2014-2-12/chinas-jade-rabbit-lunar-rove...
- TrainedMonkey 13y agoLooks like it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_Republic_of_China%27s_nuclear_program http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_Republic_of_Chi... They had capability to produce required material decades ago. They also have sufficient nuclear arsenal to warrant maintaining stockpiles of the stuff: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction#Nuclear_weapons http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_and_weapons_of_mass_destr...
- seszett 13y agoYou are confusing the Republic of China, commonly called Taiwan (which is the subject of your first link) with the People's Republic of China, which sent this robot to the moon. Both of them have nuclear power though (but only PRC has nuclear weapons) and radioactive material in sufficient quantities.