slide 1 - The rocky surface of Mars and tire tracks can be seen in this image looking back over the Perseverance Mars rover.

NASA One Step Closer to Fueling Space Missions with Plutonium-238

This Department of Energy shipment of 0.5 kilograms (a little over 1 pound) of new heat source plutonium oxide is the largest since the domestic restart of plutonium-238 production over a decade ago. Read More ›

2024 Essay Contest

Power to Explore Student Writing Challenge

The third Power to Explore Student Challenge from NASA is underway. Read More ›

slide 3 - Compter-generated view of Voyager's position in space in May 2023. The Sun at this distance is about the size of a tip of a felt tip pen.

NASA's Voyager Team Focuses on Software Patch, Thrusters

Engineers for NASA’s RPS-enabled Voyager spacecraft are taking steps to help make sure both spacecraft, launched in 1977, continue to explore interstellar space for years to come. Read More ›

Go Farther

NASA's New Horizons to Continue Exploring Outer Solar System

Beginning in fiscal year 2025, New Horizons will focus on gathering unique heliophysics data, which can be readily obtained during an extended, low-activity mode of operations. MORE ›

Anniversary

After 60 Years, Nuclear Power for Spaceflight is Still Tried and True

Six decades after the launch of the first nuclear-powered space mission, Transit IV-A, NASA is embarking on a bold future of human exploration and scientific discovery. MORE ›

NASA One Step Closer to Fueling Space Missions with Plutonium-238

2024 Essay Contest

Power to Explore Student Writing Challenge

NASA's Voyager Team Focuses on Software Patch, Thrusters

Go Farther

NASA's New Horizons to Continue Exploring Outer Solar System

Anniversary

After 60 Years, Nuclear Power for Spaceflight is Still Tried and True

New Horizons: Mission Elapsed Time

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Why RPS?

Power and Thermal Systems

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Missions

Why RPS?

For more than five decades, radioisotope power systems have played a critical role in the exploration of space, enabling missions of scientific discovery to destinations across the solar system. › More

Power and Thermal Systems

Technology

Missions

MMRTG Mission Planner Data Package

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