Where Does 'Voyager 1' Get Power?
The “Voyager 1” spacecraft is a 722 kilogram (kg; also known as kilo, the base unit of mass in the International System of Units and is defined as being equal to the mass of the “International Prototype Kilogram” (“IPK”), which is almost exactly equal to the mass of one liter of water)—1,592 lbs (pounds/pound-mass, a unit of mass used in the imperial, United States customary and other systems of measurement)—space probe, a scientific space exploration mission in which a spacecraft leaves Earth and explore space.
“Voyager 1” has three large radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs, RITEGs), electrical generators that obtain their power from radioactive decay. Each RTG contains 24 pressed radioactive isotopes of plutonium with a half-life of 87.7 years, “plutonium-238” oxide spheres.
The heat from the spheres generated about 157 watts of electric power, the rate at which electric energy is transferred by an electric circuit, at the launch, with the remainder being dissipated as waste heat. Hence, there was a total of about 470 watts of electric power provided by the three RTGs.
The power output of the RTG does decline over time, but the RTG of “Voyager 1” will continue to support some of its operations through about 2025.
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