> up to a max of 600W. Not nearly enough for sustained flight of something this ... | Hacker News

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leot on June 28, 2017 | parent | context | favorite | on: MIT’s gas-powered drone is able to stay in the air...

> up to a max of 600W. Not nearly enough for sustained flight of something this size.

Which size? Why? Human powered airplanes exist. Max sustained human output is around 400W. Are RTGs significantly heavier than humans?

phs2501 on June 28, 2017 [–]

The RTGs on Voyager weighed 37.7kg for 157W (initial) of electricity. The later RTGs on Galileo and Cassini weighed 57kg for about 300W.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MHW-RTG [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPHS-RTG

londons_explore on June 28, 2017 | [–]

And they probably had far less shielding than an earth based vehicle would need.

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