RTGs are subject to the issue of half-life - this is a consequence of that type of power source. Though, let’s be honest: we do not have any other sort of power generation technology that would be viable for literal decades on an interstellar space probe. And we definitely didn’t have a better alternative when they were launched.
this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2026
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For roughly three milliseconds I thought to myself they shoulda used solar panels instead.
"Oh, wait...."
NASA's Voyager engineers are like the final evolution of your uncle that keeps his 1974 Chevy C/K running at 400,000 miles. It's the same autism across an ocean of resources.
Tick tock, unfortunately.