Yes Virginia, Solar Power CAN get space probe to Jupiter
| Juno spacecraft demonstrates viability of solar power in deep space, Enformable, Karl Grossman 27 Jun 2016 What NASA insisted for decades could not bea spacecraft using solar energy rather than nuclear power going beyond the orbit of Marswill be proven false next Monday, July 4th, Independence Day, when the solar-energized Juno space probe arrives at Jupiter.NASA had maintained that to provide on-board power and heat on spacecraft in deep space, plutonium-powered systems were requireddespite the disaster if there were an accident on launch or in a fall back to Earth and the plutonium was released. I broke the story 30 years ago about how the next mission of NASA’s ill-fated Challenger shuttle was to involve lofting a plutonium-powered space probe and I have been reporting in articles, books and on television on the nuclear-in-space issue ever since.
If the Challenger accident did not happen in January 1986 but the shuttle exploded on its next scheduled mission, in May 1986, with the plutonium-powered space probe in its cargo bay, the impacts could have been enormous. Plutonium is the most lethal of all radioactive substances. Still, when NASA re-scheduled the two plutonium-powered missions it had planned for 1986one the Galileo mission to Jupiterit not only publicly declared that plutonium systems to provide on-board power for space probes in deep space were necessary but swore to that in court. Opponents of the Galileo mission brought suit in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. in 1989 seeking to stop the nuclear-energized Galileo shot because of its public health danger in the event of an accident, and they pressed NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on the availability of a safe energy alternative. NASA and DOE officials swore that only nuclear power would do that far out in space, that solar energy could not be harvested beyond the orbit of Mars. And now comes NASA’s own Juno spacecraft energized by solar energy functioning in deep space. Indeed, NASA acknowledges, “This is the first time in history a spacecraft is using solar power so far out in space.”…… “Just like here on Earth there is a tug-of-war going on between those who wish to promote life-giving solar power and those who want nukes. That same battle for nuclear domination is being taken into the heavens by an industry that wants more profitno matter the consequences. The Global Network will continue to organize around the space nuclear power issue by building a global constituency opposed to the risky and unnecessary nukes in space program.” – Gagnon, coordinator of The Global Network —Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space With solar-energized Juno’s arrival at Jupiter, this Independence Day should mark a blow for independence from dangerous nuclear power above our heads in space. http://enformable.com/2016/06/juno-spacecraft-demonstrates-viability-solar-power-deep-space/ |
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