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Polonium. Not just for tea any more
Mar. 23rd, 2025 05:45 pmThe anomaly discovered deep in a crater near the Mun’s south pole is a challenging site to explore. Not only is the deep sided crater a challenging landing zone but, once there, there is no sunlight available to power solar panels. One could use fuel cells to generate power but the limit is then the amount of fuel remaining in the rover.
Two rover missions have been sent, the first landed high on the crater rim where it could, at least, continue to operate on solar power. This was considered a marginal success as its presence, even 2 kilometers above the anomaly, would deter the Amerikanskis from landing their own probe or rover to claim the anomaly within its sphere of influence.
The lander of the second rover ran out of fuel on the descent and ended up in a 3 kilometer deep hole. While it survived the landing, it lacked the electrical power to navigate to the anomaly and report back before running out of battery power.
Experimental Design Bureau 301 has upgraded their Munokhod rover design to include four cameras (two binocular television and two panoramic telephotometers), a RIFMA X-ray fluorescence spectrometer, and a TL laser retroreflector. Most importantly to the specifics of the south polar monolith mission, they had now added a Polonium-210 isotopic thermoelectric generator.
As the small but highly radioactive plug slowly decays, it generates heat that can be used to not only keep delicate electronic warm in the munar shadows, it can provide a small amount of electricity. Nowhere near as much as would be provided by a solar panel but OKB-301 says it will generate that little bit of energy for years.
OKB-301 also slapped on a spotlight to work in the dark.
Munokhod 15, the third rover to be sent to the south polar anomaly, successfully touched down deep in the crater and only 215 meters from the anomaly itself. From there it was able to traverse the distance and determine that it was, as assumed, another monolith.
The Academy of Sciences, while glad that additional scientific instruments had been brought to bear on this new discovery, were also disappointed that those instruments had added essentially nothing to the corpus of knowledge concerning the monoliths, either to their composition, origin, or purpose.
Two rover missions have been sent, the first landed high on the crater rim where it could, at least, continue to operate on solar power. This was considered a marginal success as its presence, even 2 kilometers above the anomaly, would deter the Amerikanskis from landing their own probe or rover to claim the anomaly within its sphere of influence.
The lander of the second rover ran out of fuel on the descent and ended up in a 3 kilometer deep hole. While it survived the landing, it lacked the electrical power to navigate to the anomaly and report back before running out of battery power.
Experimental Design Bureau 301 has upgraded their Munokhod rover design to include four cameras (two binocular television and two panoramic telephotometers), a RIFMA X-ray fluorescence spectrometer, and a TL laser retroreflector. Most importantly to the specifics of the south polar monolith mission, they had now added a Polonium-210 isotopic thermoelectric generator.
As the small but highly radioactive plug slowly decays, it generates heat that can be used to not only keep delicate electronic warm in the munar shadows, it can provide a small amount of electricity. Nowhere near as much as would be provided by a solar panel but OKB-301 says it will generate that little bit of energy for years.
OKB-301 also slapped on a spotlight to work in the dark.
Munokhod 15, the third rover to be sent to the south polar anomaly, successfully touched down deep in the crater and only 215 meters from the anomaly itself. From there it was able to traverse the distance and determine that it was, as assumed, another monolith.
The Academy of Sciences, while glad that additional scientific instruments had been brought to bear on this new discovery, were also disappointed that those instruments had added essentially nothing to the corpus of knowledge concerning the monoliths, either to their composition, origin, or purpose.
