Plutonium: The element that saved the crew of Apollo 13

Post by tunnuz » Sat, Sep 20, 2014, 1:12 PM UTC

gh02t wrote: post #3

someperson wrote: post #2

Great article on the history and discovery of the actinide elements. The astronauts lives were apparently saved by the warm Plutonium battery powering the Lunar Module's scientific equipment (not exactly sure how though). EDIT: I know what Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators are, but not why the warm battery saved Apollo 13.

Not sure how it generates power? Pu238 is a very strong alpha emitter. Alpha particles (helium nuclei) are really big and charged, so they don't travel very far and deposit all their energy near where the decay occurs (as opposed to decay with e.g. neutrinos that essentially never interact and thus deposit no energy). The alpha decay carries a lot of energy so a chunk of Pu238 gets pretty hot. Couple it with a thermo…