Artist's impression of the Curiosity mission approaching Mars
The terms in bold link to topics in the AQA, Edexcel, OCR, WJEC and CCEA A-level specifications, as well as the IB, Pre-U and SQA exam specifications.
A remote vehicle must have a reliable power supply. Some space missions use photovoltaic panels, but solar radiation intensity decreases with distance according to an inverse-square law. Others use thermoelectric generators that rely on radioactive decay to heat semiconductor materials and generate an emf.
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