NASA's Cassini...Thank You Plutonium

In an attempt to cure my terrible case of writer's block, I have decided to possibly go into a series concerning "other benefits of nuclear energy/radioactive materials". For my first attempt I would like to discuss something historical...and one of my favorite subjects.

I love anything and everything to do with space. Planets, stars, spacecrafts, shuttle missions, space stations, galaxies, and my favorite: planetary dust aggregation...you name it...I'm interested. So you could have imagined how shocked I was in nuclear energy class this week when my fellow students discovered for the first time that the successful Cassini mission (all the way to Saturn) was powered by plutonium 238.

Most spacecraft missions are powered by solar rays but because of Saturn's distance...Cassini was going to need something different. Therefore the idea was to use approximately 72 pounds of 238Pl. The heat given off by the alpha decay process of plutonium would fuel Cassini for the entire 11 year trip (awesome). Of course, nuclear energy has had enemies throughout all of history, and at one point the mission was almost canceled due to a high turnout of protesters. Many claimed that if the Cassini exploded as the Challenger did in 1986, it would spread high amounts of plutonium all over Florida. But NASA prevailed and went on with the project and launched Cassini in 1997. Loaded up with its 72 lbs of plutonium it was on its way...and to gain momentum throughout the flight all the way to Saturn, it performed several gravitational slingshot procedures when within distance of other planets (this actually means that it went the wrong way first-towards Venus- in order to gain momentum from Venus twice and then Earth before starting its real trip).

At this very moment Cassini orbits Saturn and delivers data to us. Here is a great link to one of NASA's pages that describes all of the Cassini events happening this year! Cassini has brought so much valuable information into our hands...more than we could ever have dreamed of. In 2004 alone, Cassini delivered images to us that allowed for the discovery of three new moons! And just think that this was only possible because scientists were able to understand the decay processes of radioactive elements and NASA was able to carry through with the project despite massive protests.