EPA Finds No Show-stoppers with Radioactive Battery for Mars 2020

摘要

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found no show-stoppers with NASA's plan to put a nuclear battery aboard the Mars 2020 sample-caching rover, according to a Final Environmental Impact Statement the space agency published on its website Nov. 6. The NASA-led environmental review will not technically be complete until at least Dec. 19 - the soonest federal regulations allow NASA to post a formal record of its decision to use nuclear material on the mission - but the lack of red flags from the EPA is a signal that the way is essentially clear for NASA to proceed with its plan to power Mars 2020 with a multimission radioisotope thermoelectric generator (MMRTG).