On Friday, November 14, 2014 11:34:27 AM UTC-5, Chris L Peterson wrote:
On Thu, 13 Nov 2014 19:33:38 -0800 (PST), RichA
wrote:

So the probe will only last for a couple days now, because it landed such that the crappy solar panels only get 90mins of sun per day, not enough to keep it alive. Imagine if they'd used an RTG instead. Then, they it might last for YEARS, much like the magnificent Cassini spacecraft at Saturn. I know Plutonium and other transuranics are expensive, and how the radical leftist environmental SCUM would like to eliminate them, but the fact is, there is NO alternative in a power-starved, freezing environment lacking much sunlight.

Practically nobody is opposed to using RTGs. But that doesn't make
them the technology of choice for every application. That would have
been a poor engineering decision in this case.

Why?