NASA’s Mars Rover Perseverance (Perseverance), mounted in the head part of heavy rocket Atlas 5 launch site at Cape Canaveral, received a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RITEG) with plutonium-238, accumulated in Russia, and the United States, according to Spaceflight Now.
the Publication notes that RTGs were delivered to the rocket launcher, lifted by crane to a height of about 60 meters and is installed in the back of the Rover. 45-pound power supply with 4.8 kilograms of plutonium dioxide-238 was the last element that is integrated in Perseverance before its launch, scheduled for the last week of July.
“RTGs for Rover Perseverance includes a small amount of plutonium-238, produced for the Ministry of energy in recent years. The United States ceased production of plutonium-238 in 1988 and the U.S. government purchased the material from Russia from 1992 to the end of 2000-ies”, — the newspaper writes.
Spaceflight Now resembles that of RTG, was developed by Ministerstvom of energy of the USA, has a power output of 110 watts and is designed to power a pair of lithium-ion batteries that will be used during peak load Perseverance, when power consumption can reach 900 watts.
In March 2018 News Space journalist Jeff Foust, referring to the statement by the Director of the division for the study of the planets NASA Jim green, said on Twitter that the United States started the production of plutonium-238 in sufficient for interplanetary missions volumes, however, the Rover Perseverance use old stocks of plutonium-238.
In December 2015, the oak ridge national laboratory, the largest in the system of national laboratories U.S. Department of energy, reported first time in 30 years plutonium-238 production in the U.S. was halted in the late 1980-ies.
In 1992 the US signed a Treaty with Russia on the purchase of plutonium-238 for its space programs. The agreement provided for the purchase of materials with the isotope total mass of from 10 to 40 pounds and stopped working in 2009 due to reforms in the Russian nuclear industry.
Ready to launch in July, the NASA mission includes solid Rover Perseverance and a five-pound UAV helicopter type. Arrival to the red planet is expected in February 2021. Rover drone needs to make a soft landing in impact crater Lake, which probably in ancient times was filled with water.
