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International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
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Dragonfly, a Pu-fueled drone heading to Titan, gets key NASA approval
Curiosity landed on Mars sporting a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) in 2012, and a second NASA rover, Perseverance, landed in 2021. Both are still rolling across the red planet in the name of science. Another exploratory craft with a similar plutonium-238–fueled RTG but a very different mission—to fly between multiple test sites on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon—recently got one step closer to deployment.
On April 25, NASA and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) announced that the Dragonfly mission to Saturn’s icy moon passed its critical design review. “Passing this mission milestone means that Dragonfly’s mission design, fabrication, integration, and test plans are all approved, and the mission can now turn its attention to the construction of the spacecraft itself,” according to NASA.
S. Chaturvedi*, R. G. Mills
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 25 | Number 2 | March 1994 | Pages 164-175
Technical Paper | Fusion Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/FST94-A30265
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The important mechanisms of energy flow in a quasi-isobaric magnetic fusion device are studied. In Part I of this paper, the spatial profiles of plasma parameters that yield acceptable values of Qdt and plasma dimensions are determined. These prof lies are determined by balancing the dominant terms in the differential energy equations, i.e., conduction, brems-Strahlung, and collisional energy exchange, against each other. One class of equilibria was identified for a more detailed study. In Part II, the contributions of inelastic processes, radiation transport, and alpha-particle slowing down to the differential energy balances for electrons and ions are examined. Bremsstrahlung loss is found to be the dominant term for electrons. Inelastic processes involving hydrogen are important for ions in the fusion “core.” Impurity radiation can be important even with a low impurity content. Energy deposition by alpha particles is significant in the high-density edge, while cyclotron radiation transport plays some role in regions with large density gradients.