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NASA’s Space Travel Program May Be In Jeopardy, Missing Plutonium Fuel Could Cancel Solar System Exploration [Updated]

By Coburn Palmer
Published on: 08:33 PST, Jul 16, 2016

NASA spacecraft have captured the imagination of millions of Earthlings as they blast off into the furthest reaches of outer space, but now a lack of plutonium fuel could spell the end of the space program.

The American space agency has used plutonium-238 to fuel 27 of its spacecraft, and without it, NASA would be grounded and unable to explore the rest of the solar system or venture into interstellar space.

The problem is that America is running out of the precious plutonium-238 element, and political concerns stop the country from making any more, Idaho National Laboratory nuclear chemist Steve Johnson told Wired.

“We’ve got enough to last to the end of this decade. That’s it.”

It’s not just America that’s lacking the precious plutonium-238 fuel, the reserves of the whole world are depleted.

Plutonium-238 has been used to fuel the Voyager 1 spacecraft that became the first man-made object to reach interstellar space, Cassini’s exploration of Saturn, Galileo’s trip to Jupiter, Curiosity’s landing on Mars, and the New Horizons Pluto flyby.

It’s the only fuel capable of powering NASA’s spacecraft as they explore the deeper regions of our solar system; without it, Americans can say goodbye to deep space exploration missions.

Solar power is too weak for space exploration, and chemical batteries can’t endure long term travel into deep space while nuclear fission engines are considered too heavy to install on spaceships.

The problem is the precious plutonium-238 can only be produced as a byproduct of manufacturing nuclear weapons, Department Of Energy nuclear engineer Alice Caponiti told Wired.

“The supply situation is already impacting mission planning. If you’re planning a mission that’s going to take eight years to plan, the first thing you’re going to want to know is if you have power.”

The country only has about 36 pounds left of plutonium-238 left, and it just used 10 pounds to power NASA’s Curiosity rover that landed on the surface of Mars.

After the Cold War, the U.S. managed to acquire 36 pounds of plutonium-238 from Russia for $45,000 an ounce, but the former communist country has stopped selling the fuel amid rumors they’re running low, retired nuclear space consultant Alan Newhouse told Wired.

“What we do know is that they’re not willing to sell it anymore. One story I’ve heard … is that they don’t have anything left to sell.”

It is possible for the U.S. to manufacture more plutonium-238, but political concerns have forced those facilities to remain dormant. The government has recently begun funding a few carefully monitored projects to produce very small amounts of the element with the goal of gauging just what it would cost to gear up for full-scale development.

NASA is also working on a new power system that uses dramatically less plutonium-238 in the hopes of capitalizing on the inevitably small stockpile of the precious element.

A Stirling cycle engine, designed by Scottish clergyman Robert Stirling in 1816, uses heat to power pistons that push through magnetic coils to produce electricity, NASA engineer Lee Mason told Wired.

“Nothing is touching anything. That’s the whole beauty of the converter.”

The engine is smaller and more efficient than the ones powering NASA’s Curiosity rover, meaning they use a lot less plutonium-238. Although NASA engineers hope their new engine will help them stretch their dwindling supply of plutonium-238, the only real solution is to produce more of the precious element.

Without it, NASA will be consigned to launching only a few deep space missions before they’ll be forced to cancel exploration of the solar system in 2020. The new Mars rover currently under construction is planned for launch in 2020, and it’s expected to use up the remaining stockpile of plutonium-238.

NASA has already quietly canceled some deep space exploration missions, and scientists at the space agency and the DOE have started begging Congress for $10 million to $20 million a year to produce small amounts of the precious fuel.

There has been some progress, however; in December, 2015 NASA demonstrated the ability to produce more of the precious plutonium fuel when it created a small amount during a test procedure; the agency plans to increase production levels until it can manage to create three pounds a year.

[Photo by NASA/Getty Images]

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