Lithium-ion batteries will power electric motors when the rocket lifts off to take the first NASA team to Planet Mars. These will help control the actuators for thrust control. And the electronic brain of the space launch system. Batteries on Mars will provide energy to power explorer vehicles when the team lands. But these will not be batteries in the conventional sense, although they will be portable energy stores.
Let’s Talk First About What a Battery Is
In its purest sense, a battery is an energy store that has the added advantage of being portable. Although nowadays the big battery arrays for solar need a crane to move them.
Whereas satellites still use solar-power batteries, ‘feet on ground’ missions like Curiosity Rover require more power.
In this instance, NASA uses different batteries on Mars, although these ‘nuclear batteries’ are actually radioisotopes. They produce electricity from the heat of plutonium’s radioactive decay. This provides the flexibility NASA needs to explore the lonely planet during Martian nights and days similar to Planet Earth’s.
Let’s Find Out More About Those Batteries On Mars
The batteries on Mars, as we call them, will be radioactive forms of elements, in other words radioisotopes.
They gradually degrade to stable elements releasing heat in the process. They occur naturally in the case of uranium and radium.
The sound you hear is the UPS Battery Center getting wheel spin. We’ll get back to familiar ground.
Other Uses for Isotope ‘Batteries’ We May Know
Radioisotopes have a use in more familiar devices than we dreamed of. They have been doing their job for decades in medical diagnostic equipment, and geological event dating. Not to mention construction welding, art restoration and more. NASA has used them for over five decades in the exploration of space. Therefore, we are confident their radioisotope batteries on Mars will do a sterling job.
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Preview Image: Martian Landscape
