Engineers at NASA have begun loading nuclear fuel onto the Mars 2020 rover. As the rover is scheduled for launch in 2020, Thomas Zurbuchen, deputy director of the Space Mission ’s Scientific Mission Council, has begun to approve the start of placing plutonium-238 fuel in a multi-mission radioisotope thermoelectric generator (MMRTG), which will provide the rover Heat and electricity.
MMRTG was built with the support of the Office of Space and Defense Power Systems of the United States Department of Energy (DOE). It is not a nuclear reactor, but a nuclear battery. Specifically, it generates 110 watts of power through the natural decay of the plutonium-238 radioisotope in eight general heat source (GPHS) modules.
Most of the heat is converted into electrical energy through thermal conductors to provide power to the rover's experiments, electronic equipment, mechanical arms, and wheels. At the same time, excess heat is directed to keep the spacecraft warm on cold Martian nights.
The US space mission has used more than 27 nuclear power systems, of which MMRTG is a relatively recent innovation, first installed on NASA ’s Curiosity Mars rover. Although the production of isotopes has restarted, the United States still has enough plutonium to build two MMRTGs after the Mars 2020 rover, but these have not been allocated.
NASA said the U.S. Department of Energy will complete the launch by July 2020, when the rover will be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida. The rover will then land on the Jezero Crater in the Mars Syrtis Major region on February 18, 2021.
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