If you replace the section of a sphere with the section of a triangular prism, then the dispersed rays will come out the other side the “Dark Side of the Moon” album cover. If one is wrong then the other one is wrong too. The image of Pluto had the light scattering through the atmosphere, which gives us a vignetted outline that is very like the triangle album cover too, but that was just an abstract thing to delineate the prism on the album cover: if we were drawing the rays from the sun then they would be coming at us from behind the circle, grazing the circle, and then going in a small range of directions, and the fuzziness we see is just the rays that have been scattered towards the probe.
they’re not much help though. You get about enough power out of them to power a light-bulb, which means that you’ll be able to either run the computer, the camera, or the wheels, but not at the same time.
So it’s like trying to play a Doom at 2 frames a month.
If you want to explore, you’ll have to do better than RTGs.
Y’all just do not understand Pluto… Once again, it comes down to Plutonian Unicorns and the plague-level clouds of Plutonian Flies – whenever a Plutonian Unicorn shakes its hide to scatter the flies, an isometric burst of light is released resulting in an apparent planet shine.
Looks like 100 watts continuous is feasible. In a cold environment you may get more efficiency out of a stirling engine design. And you don’t always need the hundred watts. You can store it and run your motors, radio, etc when required.
