#depended — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #depended, aggregated by home.social.
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Every spacecraft ever sent to operate beyond Jupiter has depended on plutonium-238—a reactor-made isotope that cannot be mined. The United States stopped producing it in 1988, then spent nearly three decades drawing down old reserves and supplementing them with material purchased from Russia. In 2015, American production finally restarted with a batch of just 50 grams.
https://atlas.whatip.xyz/post.php?slug=every-spacecraft-ever-sent-to-operate-beyond-jupiter-has-depended-on-plutonium-238a-reactor-made-isotope-that-cannot-be-mined-the-united-states-stopped-producing-it-in-1988-then-spent-nearly-three-decades-drawing-down-old-reserves-and-supplementing-them-with-material-purchased-from-russia-in-2015-american-production-finally-restarted-with-a-batch-of-just-50-grams
Quick take: <p>As humanity's deepest space probes age
#spacecraft #plutonium #depended #operate