Original Summary

The reactors in Voyager 1 rely on the heat produced by decaying plutonium, which decays into uranium. We could’ve powered it with the uranium, But, uranium decays INCREDIBLY slowly. You’d have needed like, some 70,000 tons of it to power the thing, But, it would’ve been powered for hundreds of thousands of years. Radium would’ve been the better choice. You’d only need about 600 pounds of it, And it would keep it running for thousands of years. But, a radium system would weigh over five times the current spacecraft, And would’ve had to be assembled in space, because it never could’ve left the ground. Honestly, we should’ve done that. &lt;&#x2F;3 The reason it would weigh so much, is that the insulators needed to contain it would be immense. Due to decaying radium having the likelihood of screwing with electronics, you’d have to contain it. The plutonium is contained with a little bit of lead, But, radium would need a LOT of insulation. The most likely insulator would’ve been tungsten. Decayed uranium would insulate better, but also cause a couple of other problems, and use more fuel. So, tungsten would’ve been used. And this all would’ve been very completable in 1977.<p>But, wouldn’t it have been worth it to keep this thing running thousands of years longer? Instead of just one light-day, we could’ve reached multiple light-weeks!<p>(This was written specifically for Voyager 1, but it may be applicable to Voyager 2)

中文概览

中文标题： Show HN：旅行者1号本可以运行久得多

旅行者1号靠钚衰变热供电，钚衰变为铀；用铀需约7万吨，可供电数十万年。镭只需约600磅即可运行数千年，但系统重量超现飞船五倍，且须在太空组装、无法从地面发射。镭可能干扰电子设备，需大量绝缘屏蔽，最可能用钨；作者认为1977年可完成，值得多运行数千年，从一光日延伸到数光周。主要针对旅行者1号，或也适用2号。

  • 情报分类：综合情报
  • 分类依据：英文航天核电源讨论，无法确定归入技术、硬件或项目，按规则选综合。
  • 信息来源：Hacker News 新项目
  • 发布时间：2026/9/24 01:55:50