Power Performance Histories of Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators, Their Robust Mission Service and Observations about Long-Lived, RTG-Powered Missions

Proposers from spaceflight centers would like to submit mission concepts powered by Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs) with primary mission durations longer than 14 years to NASA. This white paper begins to address these requests from mission proposers and provides a summary of historical data on missions that use(d) RTGs. The data shows all RTGs flown by the United States have performed past their design life and that a majority have flown well past their design life. Many of these thermoelectric systems have lasted longer than the current 14-year flight design life requirement of the available Multi-Mission RTG (MMRTG).