U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Dr. Ernest Moniz, left, shakes hands with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, right, after signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to renew and solidify interagency cooperation ensuring that space nuclear power technologies will be available to power future missions to our solar system and beyond, on Monday, Oct. 31, 2016, at DOE Headquarters in Washington, DC. The MOU updates the prior agreement between DOE and NASA signed in 1991. Radioisotope power systems (RPS) have played a critical role in the exploration of space for more than 40 years. These pioneering missions have helped reveal the nature of Earth’s moon, provided views of icy geysers and sulfur volcanoes on moons of Saturn and Jupiter, and have given humanity its first views of the surface of Pluto.
Photo Credit: (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)