this post was submitted on 17 Nov 2025

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Americium: How a small element could power the next century of space exploration (interestingengineering.com)

submitted 11 months ago by kalkulat@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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"The isotope of interest for space is americium-241....Its half-life is a staggering 432 years, five times longer than plutonium-238."

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[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 10 points 11 months ago (3 children)

isn't this the same element found in older smoke detectors?

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[–] General_Effort@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

Yes.

Shout-out for The Radioactive Boy Scout. (RIP)

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[–] Badabinski@kbin.earth 4 points 11 months ago

Yep, and it's still used in some new ones.

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[–] kalkulat@lemmy.world [S] 2 points 11 months ago

That it is!

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