Energy · Recorded milestone
Radioisotope power generator
Recorded year1961
Transit 4A flies a plutonium thermoelectric generator, giving decades of power far from the Sun and later inside pacemakers.
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Led to
- Decades-long nuclear batteriesRecorded · 1970enables
- Voyager probesRecorded · 1977enables
- Mars roversRecorded · 1997enables
- Dragonfly flies on TitanForecast · ~2034enables
- Uranus orbiter and probeForecast · ~2045enables
- Long-lived Venus landersForecast · ~2060enables
- Probes to the Oort cloudForecast · ~2060enables
- Ice-moon ocean submarineForecast · ~2066enables
Sources & evidence
Dataset updated 2026-10-18. This individual record has not been separately re-reviewed.