China has Pu-238

[xenomorph555]

They started producing it before 2007 and have possibly got a decent stockpile of it by now. Both Chang'e 3 and Yutu had Pu-238 heater units (reason they have survived so long) so they obviously have a good amount. I wonder if they would ever consider marketing it, to the US perhaps...

[Reddragon]

Hmm.. this is interesting. I didn't know Yutu has an RTG. But of course, to make it work during the lunar night it needs something more than the solar panels.

[xenomorph555]

Hmm.. this is interesting. I didn't know Yutu has an RTG. But of course, to make it work during the lunar night it needs something more than the solar panels.

It doesn't have an RTG, which produce electricity, it has an RHU which is a heating device keeping the rover warm.

[astropapi1]

Interesting. Maybe France could get a deal with them to give the ESA some of it. What's the diplomatic relationship between the two?

[Dodgey]

With them producing so much Pu-238 I wonder if anyone had become a new member of the IPPU club.

[NERVAfan]

They started producing it before 2007 and have possibly got a decent stockpile of it by now. Both Chang'e 3 and Yutu had Pu-238 heater units (reason they have survived so long) so they obviously have a good amount. I wonder if they would ever consider marketing it, to the US perhaps...

Probably not until NASA works with China (IIRC it is actually forbidden to do so by Congress). IMO that should totally be changed... we could do Apollo-Soyuz during the frickin' Cold War, but we can't cooperate with China (who actually has an operational manned program, unlike the US currently) in space?

[KerbMav]

Probably not until NASA works with China (IIRC it is actually forbidden to do so by Congress). IMO that should totally be changed... we could do Apollo-Soyuz during the frickin' Cold War, but we can't cooperate with China (who actually has an operational manned program, unlike the US currently) in space?

With the Russians the US was in a Cold War - with China they are in a economic contest.

See how the world works?

[B787_300]

The US should work with China in Space, heck even make them a partner on the ISS...

Also NervaFan your sig link is borked

[How2FoldSoup]

With the Russians the US was in a Cold War - with China they are in a economic contest.

See how the world works?

I think you might misunderstand the Cold War some. In essence, it was an economic war and that is why the USSR collapsed. I do see how the world works and it's less of an issue to work with China than with the USSR.

[MBobrik]

I wonder if they would ever consider marketing it, to the US perhaps...

Every country that got nuclear weapons got enough plutonium to build Plutonium heaters or RTGs. The reasons why other countries are using them much less are political...

[Kryten]

Every country that got nuclear weapons got enough plutonium to build Plutonium heaters or RTGs. The reasons why other countries are using them much less are political...

²³⁸Pu≠²³⁹Pu.

Edited November 24, 2014 by Kryten

[xenomorph555]

Every country that got nuclear weapons got enough plutonium to build Plutonium heaters or RTGs. The reasons why other countries are using them much less are political...

While true in the sense that extracting Pu-239 (fissle) for bombs will give you small amounts of Pu-238 (hot, not fissle) the reason other countries don't use Pu-238 is because none of them have made any nukes in over 20 years, cutting off the production of Pu-238 and therefore running out of it.

[Kryten]

Pu-238 is fissile, it's just worse (higher critical mass) and harder to produce than Pu-239, so there's not much point bothering. Incidentally Am-242m, the RTG material ESA are trying to start production of, is at least as good a weapons material as Pu-239.

[xenomorph555]

Pu-238 is fissile, it's just worse (higher critical mass) and harder to produce than Pu-239, so there's not much point bothering. Incidentally Am-242m, the RTG material ESA are trying to start production of, is at least as good a weapons material as Pu-239.

Are you sure Pu-238 is fissile, I can't find any sources saying it is.

Also ESA is trying to make RTG's out of Am-241, 242m is nearly impossible to synthesize in measurable amounts.

[Kryten]

http://sti.srs.gov/fulltext/ms9900313/ms9900313.html

Although you'd have quite a bit of difficulty building a bomb with that kind of heat output to deal with.

[Aningaaq]

Whatever happened to the Yutu? They had a ground penetrating radar on it (First ever on the moon I think) but if the rover couldn't drive around then it would be pretty useless.

[Kryten]

Whatever happened to the Yutu? They had a ground penetrating radar on it (First ever on the moon I think) but if the rover couldn't drive around then it would be pretty useless.

Yutu had a failure of the drive mechanism on the second lunar day, but otherwise is still apparently functioning. They just put out a journal of the initial scientific results, including from the GPR.

[xenomorph555]

Yutu is still "alive" although it cannot move and it loses capability's over time.

[Aningaaq]

Yutu had a failure of the drive mechanism on the second lunar day, but otherwise is still apparently functioning. They just put out a journal of the initial scientific results, including from the GPR.

This is great. Thank you. I'm writing a paper, hopefully to be published in the Spring, about GPR uses from the earth to comets...and now the moon. It has been an interesting year for this technology!

[Explosionsrule]

Intresting, but the U.S. could be developing anything right now. For example when people saw the b2 it wasn't until about 20 years after it was already developed

[prophet_01]

Intresting, but the U.S. could be developing anything right now. For example when people saw the b2 it wasn't until about 20 years after it was already developed

I'm not sure that anything space related appart from reconaissence technology, weapons (including the systems that are able to carry them, x-37b) and maybe fission reactors are going to be classified. Afterall even the space shuttle was designed to serve military purpuses if required.