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Plutonium
From a Yahoo! News story: “WASHINGTON – NASA is running out of nuclear fuel needed for its deep space exploration. The end of the Cold War's nuclear weapons buildup means that the U.S. space agency does not have enough plutonium for future faraway space probes — except for a few missions already scheduled — according to a new study released Thursday by the National Academy of Sciences. Deep space probes beyond Jupiter can't use solar power because they're too far from the sun. The National Academy report says it would cost the Energy Department at least $150 million to resume making it for the 11 pounds a year that NASA needs for its space probes. Solar power is preferable to plutonium because it is cheaper and has fewer safety concerns, but solar power just doesn't work in the darkest areas of space.” To begin with, I have not the slightest clue why we need to be exploring outer space when we need to explore solutions to serious problems we have here on this planet. Secondly, I really don’t need to be told that solar power does not work in the dark and that it’s cheaper than plutonium. Please. Either way, the woman at left does not seem to care.
From a Yahoo! News story: “WASHINGTON – NASA is running out of nuclear fuel needed for its deep space exploration. The end of the Cold War's nuclear weapons buildup means that the U.S. space agency does not have enough plutonium for future faraway space probes — except for a few missions already scheduled — according to a new study released Thursday by the National Academy of Sciences. Deep space probes beyond Jupiter can't use solar power because they're too far from the sun. The National Academy report says it would cost the Energy Department at least $150 million to resume making it for the 11 pounds a year that NASA needs for its space probes. Solar power is preferable to plutonium because it is cheaper and has fewer safety concerns, but solar power just doesn't work in the darkest areas of space.” To begin with, I have not the slightest clue why we need to be exploring outer space when we need to explore solutions to serious problems we have here on this planet. Secondly, I really don’t need to be told that solar power does not work in the dark and that it’s cheaper than plutonium. Please. Either way, the woman at left does not seem to care. 
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