I'm wondering if radiation isn't one of the reasons. Hibernation means powered-d... | Hacker News

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		jhgb on Sept 13, 2017 \| parent \| context \| favorite \| on: Hibernation Over, New Horizons Continues Its Kuipe... I'm wondering if radiation isn't one of the reasons. Hibernation means powered-down circuits, meaning there's no voltage on thin insulator barriers to degrade them faster. MOS gates come to mind. But I'm no expert on microelectronics. Power management does nothing for deep space probes because their RTGs work whether you want them or not.

speleo_engr on Sept 13, 2017 | [–]

Yes radiation would be the reason here. Power is not a concern - as another poster commented, the RTG is always on whether you like it or not!

KGIII on Sept 13, 2017 | [–]

Good call. I hadn't thought of that. I am not a rocket surgeon.

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