Home▸Space & Astronomy▸RTG vs Solar Power: Distance from the Sun

☢️ RTG vs Solar Power: Distance from the Sun

Drag a spacecraft from Earth out past Neptune and watch a solar panel's power output crash with inverse-square distance while an RTG's output stays flat and reliable.

Space & Astronomy3DModerate60 FPS🌍 Earth

Details

CategorySpace & Astronomy

RenderingThree.js · WebGL

DifficultyModerate

Target FPS60

ControlsDistance-from-Sun slider (log scale, 0.4-30+ AU) with planet quick-select buttons (Mercury through Neptune); mission-elapsed-years slider (0-200 yr) driving Pu-238 half-life decay; orbit-drag to rotate the 3D solar-system view; live side-by-side power gauges and a distance-vs-power chart marking the spacecraft's current position on both the solar and RTG curves.

Three.jsRTGradioisotope powersolar panelinverse-square lawdeep space

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⚙ Under the hood

Drag a spacecraft from Earth out past Neptune and watch a solar panel's power output crash with inverse-square distance while an RTG's output stays flat and reliable — then age the mission by decades to see Pu-238's own slow decay.

Three.jsRTGradioisotope powersolar panelinverse-square lawdeep space

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install