New answers tagged design-alternative
4
votes
In retrospect, should they have provided more RTG fuel and a more powerful radio for Voyager?
The reason was simple: "Four years — that was the prime mission."
I don't think anybody would have bet that the probes would stay operational for more than 4 decades. Sure: "If an ...
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33
votes
In retrospect, should they have provided more RTG fuel and a more powerful radio for Voyager?
But they also knew that the mission was likely to be extended, like all missions.
Like all what missions, exactly? Voyager 1 was initially planned as Mariner 11. By the time it flew, all other ...
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13
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In retrospect, should they have provided more RTG fuel and a more powerful radio for Voyager?
RTG fuel isn't the limiting factor for the life of the Voyager spacecraft. The limiting factor is radiation-induced degradation of the thermocouples, giving the effect of having a half-life of 35 ...
- 15.9k
46
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In retrospect, should they have provided more RTG fuel and a more powerful radio for Voyager?
“Adding extra RTG fuel disks would increase the weight of the entire
vessel only slightly, but give it a much, much longer lifetime.”
This statement is not correct. More isotope would increase RTG ...
- 27.9k
27
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Accepted
In retrospect, should they have provided more RTG fuel and a more powerful radio for Voyager?
The "answer" is as much about human nature rather than the nature of the designers of this particular mission.
There are often loosely declared motives for doing a government
mission in the ...
- 10.1k
34
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In retrospect, should they have provided more RTG fuel and a more powerful radio for Voyager?
Yes, there is a reason: adding more RTGs would have made the Voyagers too heavy to be launched on the trajectory they used.
The RTGs weigh 50 kg for 150 W of power at launch, IIRC. IRL they had 3 RTGs ...
- 130k
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