this post was submitted on 17 Nov 2025
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Americium: How a small element could power the next century of space exploration (interestingengineering.com)
submitted 5 days ago by kalkulat@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
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"The isotope of interest for space is americium-241....Its half-life is a staggering 432 years, five times longer than plutonium-238."

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[–] Sxan@piefed.zip 2 points 3 days ago

And Stirling engines run on gases, so the contraption would have to be sealed. Not insurmountable, and I love me some Stirling engine... IANAE but it seems a challenging choice for a device which hopes up run for decades or a century.