"The last time NASA launched a spacecraft that used radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs), the Cassini mission in October 1997, there was a modest amount of controversy surrounding the launch. The fear of radioactive contamination in the event of a launch accident, and ill-defined concerns by anti-nuclear activists that this was the spearhead for the "nuclearization" and weaponization of space generated its fair share of heated rhetoric, protests, and even legal efforts to block the launch.Space protests seem like fun... what the anti-nuke fanaticals can't drag themselves out of the closet for a few seconds for my personal entertainment?
(...)
"Now, NASA is gearing up to launch its first RTG-powered spacecraft since Cassini, the New Horizons mission to Pluto. Yet, unlike Cassini, there is remarkably little controversy surrounding the launch, even when considering the relatively limited opposition to Cassini. (link)
Canada has had it's bulky share of those worry warts afraid that NASA is going to cause a mushroom cloud. It all stems from a Russian probe that spread radiation across a section of the Canadian north once upon a time. No deaths have been attributed to it - and as far as I know nothing ever became of it.
But apparently ever since we Canucks can count ourselves victims on the horrible "weaponization of space" crusade. And I'm one Crazy Canuck that isn't in that group.... I figure just because a probe is carrying some plutonium, doesn't mean that Star Wars is going to happen overnight.
Jeff Foust says all the silence on the new mission is probably 'cuz everyone is more pre-occupied with stuff like Iraq, and terrorism. I think there may be another reason: people are starting to realise how weehakeewoohoo beying worried about something like this is.
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