I wonder if a RTG could produce enough to run an electric quad or optocopter?
For certain applications if unmanned you wouldn’t really need to worry about shielding. I wonder how long those motors can run continuously?
For certain applications if unmanned you wouldn’t really need to worry about shielding. I wonder how long those motors can run continuously?
Presumably this is why Pu-238 is used for RTGs where power density matters; a half life of 87.7 years means a reasonably long working life using with only 1/3% of the mass compared to Pu-239.
Other hand Pu-238 produces 570 W/kg. A piper cub with it's 48kw engine would need 87kg of Pu-238 to produce the same energy.
I looked up the cost, $1968/g. So 48kw would cost $171 million.
Interesting idea but doubt.
Given a 45kg RTG plus the weight of the drone itself, you’d need to be able to lift, say, 60kg.
Energy required to hover 60kg using a 4-rotor drone at 70% efficiency is about 10kW - according to GPT. I don’t know enough to say if this is true or not.
Assuming it’s correct, and that a 45kg RTG generates about 300 watts, give or take, the answer is:
no.