Radioisotope Power Systems
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NASA
NASA Selects Winners of the 2024-2025 Power to Explore Challenge
NASA has chosen three winners out of nine finalists in the fourth annual Power to Explore Challenge, a national writing competition designed to teach K-12 students about the enabling power of radioisotopes for space exploration. Congratulations to the amazing champions and all of the participants! Carl Sandifer II Program Manager, NASA’s Radioisotope Power Systems Program The essay competition asked students to…
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NASA
Attention Students: NASA Launches Power Systems Student Essay Contest
NASA’s fourth annual Power to Explore Student Challenge kicked off November 7, 2024. The science, engineering, technology, and mathematics (STEM) writing challenge invites kindergarten through 12th grade students in the United States to learn about radioisotope power systems, a type of nuclear battery integral to many of NASA’s far-reaching space missions. Students are invited to write an essay about a…
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NASA
NASA One Step Closer to Fueling Space Missions with Plutonium-238
The recent shipment of heat source plutonium-238 from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Oak Ridge National Laboratory to its Los Alamos National Laboratory is a critical step toward fueling planned NASA missions with radioisotope power systems. This shipment of 0.5 kilograms (a little over 1 pound) of new heat source plutonium oxide is the largest since the domestic restart of…
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NASA
NASA Seeks Students to Imagine Nuclear-Powered Space Missions
The third Power to Explore Student Challenge from NASA is underway. The writing challenge invites K-12 students in the United States to learn about radioisotope power systems, a type of nuclear battery integral to many of NASA’s far-reaching space missions, and then write an essay about a new powered mission for the agency. For more than 60 years, radioisotope power systems have…
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NASA
NASA Announces Student Winners of Power to Explore Challenge
NASA selected three winners out of nine finalists in the second annual Power to Explore Challenge, a national competition for elementary through high school students featuring the power of radioisotopes for space exploration. The competition asked students to learn about Radioisotope Power Systems (RPS), a type of “nuclear battery” that NASA uses to explore some of the most extreme destinations in our solar…
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