The quickest way to recognize how rad Earth is, is to leave it. Every time we send a spacecraft into space, we have to send it with everything it will ever need riding on its back or in its belly.

Researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are breathing new life into the scientific ...

Voyages into space are among the most iconic endeavors of the 20th and 21st centuries. Spacecraft that have ventured out to this “final frontier” have relayed stunning images and enlightening ...

WASHINGTON — For planetary scientists and astrophysicists hoping to re-establish domestic production of plutonium-238 (Pu-238) in an effort to power future U.S. deep space missions, 2011 could be ...

Radioactive materials have enormous potential as a source of energy, but some isotopes are available in such small quantities that their use as an energy source is limited. In the 1950s, scientists at ...

The US government says a new robot is poised to help it create a reliable, long-term supply chain of plutonium-238, a radioactive material NASA requires to explore deep space. NASA uses Pu-238 to ...

Tucked away in U.S. President BarackObama’s 2010 budget request for the U.S. Department of Energy was a piece of good news for NASA and deep space exploration: $30 million to lay the groundwork for ...

NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover is ready to roll now that it got its plutonium-238 power supply. Tory Bruno, head of the United Launch Alliance declared, "This Red Planet dune buggy is fueled and ready ...