way out into space the sun’s energy
giving Ray’s grow weaker solar panels
would be little used to Cassini passing
distant planets
it needs a far longer lasting source of
power the radioactive power of
plutonium-238 in Idaho Falls behind
high-level security the United States
Department of Energy harnesses this
prized source the Cassini mission
required more nuclear power than any
other mission in NASA’s history three
heavily shielded thermoelectric
generators transform the heat of
radioactive decay into electrical power
they hold
iridium coated plutonium planets lasting
for decades but potentially deadly to
life that energy source is what keeps
Cassini’s cameras taking pictures and
powers its radio messages back to earth
it runs all the devices on the
spacecraft plus the residual heat is
funneled into the spacecraft and keeps
all the instruments warm and in their
proper operating range but how do you
stay warm when outside temperatures are
dropping to minus 364 degrees Fahrenheit
you wrap up in a blanket in this room at
NASA’s Jet Propulsion lab there is over
a million dollars worth of them this is
the fabric we use to shield Cassini and
protected against the environmental
fluxes of space more than 20 layers of
specialised fabric protect Cassini not
real gold but colored aluminized
materials $60,000 worth Cassini was one
of the most challenging spacecrafts to
even you know undertake it was menacing
to think that we had to develop
shielding for this entire spacecraft
it’s taken decades of dreaming designing
building and testing now the mission is
ready to go
[Music]
giving Ray’s grow weaker solar panels
would be little used to Cassini passing
distant planets
it needs a far longer lasting source of
power the radioactive power of
plutonium-238 in Idaho Falls behind
high-level security the United States
Department of Energy harnesses this
prized source the Cassini mission
required more nuclear power than any
other mission in NASA’s history three
heavily shielded thermoelectric
generators transform the heat of
radioactive decay into electrical power
they hold
iridium coated plutonium planets lasting
for decades but potentially deadly to
life that energy source is what keeps
Cassini’s cameras taking pictures and
powers its radio messages back to earth
it runs all the devices on the
spacecraft plus the residual heat is
funneled into the spacecraft and keeps
all the instruments warm and in their
proper operating range but how do you
stay warm when outside temperatures are
dropping to minus 364 degrees Fahrenheit
you wrap up in a blanket in this room at
NASA’s Jet Propulsion lab there is over
a million dollars worth of them this is
the fabric we use to shield Cassini and
protected against the environmental
fluxes of space more than 20 layers of
specialised fabric protect Cassini not
real gold but colored aluminized
materials $60,000 worth Cassini was one
of the most challenging spacecrafts to
even you know undertake it was menacing
to think that we had to develop
shielding for this entire spacecraft
it’s taken decades of dreaming designing
building and testing now the mission is
ready to go
[Music]
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