New Horizons at INL
INL scientists assembled the space battery at the new Space and Security Power Systems Facility. Read about INL's role in the New Horizons mission, and see a history of planetary conquest and plans for Pluto.
New Horizons Launch
New Horizons power is INL first
It can barely power two 100-watt household light bulbs, yet the Idaho National Laboratory’s space battery is powering NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto. The space battery is called a radioisotope thermoelectric generator, or RTG. Though small, it increases INL's role in space programs.
Read the full story.
INL is focusing on energizing space exploration.
One of the Idaho National Laboratory’s goals is to provide the nuclear technology necessary for powering the most intriguing discoveries in our solar system.
The first step was helping to energize NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto which launched early in 2006. New Horizons is designed to help to gain an understanding of worlds at the edge of our solar system by making the first reconnaissance of Pluto and Charon - a "double planet" and the last planet in our solar system to be visited by spacecraft. Then, as part of an extended mission, New Horizons will visit one or more objects in the Kuiper Belt region beyond Neptune. Visit the New Horizons web site for more information.
In concert with NASA’s priorities and pace, the INL is set to lead, contribute to, and support development of nuclear reactor technologies required for multi-mission spacecraft and human exploration.
- The INL helping New Horizons Space Mission to Pluto -- KTVB news story — 2.6MB WMV
- Message from INL Laboratory Director 122kB PDF
- INL-built nuclear power systems crucial to future space missions
- Idaho's Role in Energizing Space Exploration and Securing America 3.8MB WMV
- USU’s Physics Day at Lagoon
- INL-built generator will power deep-space mission
- INL Supporting Space Exploration - Fact Sheet 338kB PDF
- Small Radioisotope Power Systems - Jet Propulsion Laboratory Presentation 30.1MB PDF
- Space Batteries - Fact Sheet 470kB PDF
- Space Radioisotope Power Systems - Fact Sheet 202kB PDF
- INL Overview - Fact Sheet 335kB PDF
- New Horizons Handout 316kB PDF
DOE Consolidation efforts:
- Commonly asked questions about radioisotope power systems - Space Batteries - July 2005 155kB PDF
- New Consolidation Overview 1.3MB PDF
- Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Proposed Consolidation of Nuclear Operations
related to Production of Radioisotope Power Systems - DOE Space Nuclear Consolidation Proposal 6.8MB PDF
- National Environmental Policy Act Environmental Impact Statement 631kB PDF
- General inquiries:
- Nuclear Communications