Nuclear power in space

American robotic rover exploring Gale Crater on Mars

electrical generator that converts heat released by radioactive decay into electricity by the Seebeck effect

devices generating electricity from radioisotope decay

Failed nuclear spacecraft

propulsion methods that use a nuclear reaction as the primary power source

thumb|RORSAT Upravlyaemy Sputnik Aktivnyy ( for Controlled Active Satellite), or US-A, also known in the Western world as Radar Ocean Reconnaissance Satellite or RORSAT (GRAU index 17F16K), was a series of 33 Soviet reconnaissance satellites. Launched between 1967 and 1988 to monitor NATO and merchant vessels using radar, the satellites were powered by nuclear reactors.

Russian artificial satellite

nuclear thermal source whose heat is converted into electricity

device that provides heat through radioactive decay

Kilopower is an experimental U.S. project to make new nuclear reactors for space travel. The project started in October 2015, led by NASA and the DoE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). As of 2017, the Kilopower reactors were intended to come in four sizes, able to produce from one to ten kilowatts of electrical power (1–10 kWe) continuously for twelve to fifteen years. The fission reactor uses uranium-235 to generate heat that is carried to the Stirling converters with passive sodium heat pipes. In 2018, positive test results for the Kilopower Reactor Using Stirling Techno

SNAP-10A (Systems for Nuclear Auxiliary Power, aka Snapshot for Space Nuclear Auxiliary Power Shot, also known as OPS 4682) was a US experimental nuclear powered satellite launched into space in 1965 as part of the SNAPSHOT program. The test marked both the world's first operation of a nuclear reactor in orbit, and the first operation of an ion thruster system in orbit. It is the only fission reactor power system launched into space by the United States. The reactor stopped working after just 43 days due to a non-nuclear electrical component failure. The Systems Nuclear Auxiliary Power Program

Space exploration using nuclear energy

power generation device

soviet surveillance satellite

radar ocean reconnaissance satellite or RORSAT

radioactive heat source for Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTG) or Stirling radioisotope generators (SRG)

Soviet nuclear reactor for orbital spacecraft

The Multihundred-watt radioisotope thermoelectric generator (MHW RTG) is a type of US radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) developed for the Voyager spacecraft, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. The Voyager generators continue to function nearly 50 years into the mission.

type of radioisotope generator

BES-5, also known as Bouk or Buk (), was a Soviet thermoelectric generator that was used to power 31 satellites in the US-A (RORSAT) project. The heat source was a uranium 235 fast fission nuclear reactor (FNR).

program of experimental radioisotope thermoelectric generators

Power system for use on spacecraft

thumb|upright=1.36|Diagram of an RTG used on the Cassini probe thumb|right|Diagram of a stack of general-purpose heat source modules as used in RTGs thumb|right|Image of a plutonium RTG pellet glowing incandescence|red hot. GPHS-RTG or general-purpose heat source — radioisotope thermoelectric generator, is a specific design of the radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) used on US space missions. The GPHS-RTG was used on Ulysses (1), Galileo (2), Cassini-Huygens (3), and New Horizons (1).

experimental fission reactors for use in space