yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

A Nuclear-Powered Space Mission | Mission Saturn


2m read
·Nov 11, 2024

NARRATOR: Way out into space, the sun's energy-giving rays grow weaker. Solar panels would be little use 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.

NARRATOR: Three heavily shielded thermo-electric generators transformed the heat of radioactive decay into electrical power. They hold iridium-coated plutonium pellets, 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 it keeps all the instruments warm and in their proper operating range.

NARRATOR: 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 $1 million worth of them.

MARK DURAN: This is the fabric we use to shield Cassini and protect it against the environmental fluxes of space.

NARRATOR: More than 20 layers of specialized fabric protect Cassini. Not real gold, but colored, aluminized materials. $60,000 worth. Cassini was one of the most challenging spacecrafts to even undertake. It was menacing to think that we had to develop shielding for this entire spacecraft.

NARRATOR: It's taken decades of dreaming, designing, building, and testing. Now, the mission is ready to go.

More Articles

View All
Probability distributions from empirical data | Probability & combinatorics
We’re told that Jada owns a restaurant where customers can make their orders using an app. She decides to offer a discount on appetizers to attract more customers, and she’s curious about the probability that a customer orders a large number of appetizers…
The 'Value Investing' Strategy Explained - The Young Investors Podcast | Episode 1
Hey guys and welcome to our investing podcast! We’re doing a podcast, can you believe it? My name is Brandon, and I’m joined, gonna be joined each and every week by Hamish Hotter. Hello, how’s it going? Oh, I’m going quite well. How are you doing? Yeah…
The Power Of Pessimism | Stoic Exercises For Inner Peace
Because my video with 7 stoic exercises for inner peace was so successful, I’ve decided to go a bit deeper into each exercise, giving you a little bit more intellectual baggage to ponder over. I’ll start with explaining the praemeditatio malorum by Marcus…
Stunning Footage: Epic Animal Migrations in Yellowstone | National Geographic
[Music] The greater Yellowstone ecosystem has some of the most incredible Wildlife migrations in the [Music] world. We have the nine major elk migrations radiating out of the national parks and Wilderness areas every year. The famous 120-mile Pronghorn mi…
Are Guitars Worth Investing In? | Walt Grace PT III
People come from all over the world to come here. It’s a destination. You’re not a typical guitar retail store. There’s nothing like this I’ve ever seen. What is this thing in this case? That’s also a Martin. This one is twenty thousand dollars. Uh, yeah,…
Warren Buffett: Why Gold is a Bad Investment
Okay, so it’s no secret that the United States, and frankly, the entire world is experiencing high levels of inflation that most countries around the world haven’t experienced in decades. You’re probably seeing this inflation, which refers to things that …