NASA's imminent plutonium shortage could put the brakes on deep space travel.
Business Insider noted that NASA fueled its space missions with plutonium-238 (Pu-328), an element whose heat could be converted to electricity.
By placing the radioactive form inside a radioisotope power source (RPS), the energy created from the Pu-238 can power incredible space missions.
However, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Wednesday, NASA's resources of Pu-328 could be depleted within eight years.
Until 2015, reserves of Pu-328 were last produced in 1988.
However, according to the report, the new batch manufactured was a highly technical process "and the department faces challenges meeting NASA's expected need for Pu-238."
Speaking at a House space subcommittee hearing on the subject, Government Accountability Office official Shelby Oakley said the Department of Energy was working toward producing new Pu-328, Space News noted.
However, she said there were various challenges facing the department including the "hiring and training the necessary workforce, perfecting and scaling up chemical processing, and ensuring the availability of reactors that must be addressed or its ability to meet NASA's needs could be jeopardized."
Ultimately, these obstacles could jeopardize NASA's ability to use RPS to power future missions.
Scientists have set their sights on various ambitious projects including revisiting Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, however, Alan Stern, former head of science at NASA and principal investigator of the New Horizons mission told Business Insider that all these missions would require Pu-328 as a power source.
David Schurr, the deputy director of NASA's planetary science program, told Business Insider there was no risk "that threatens the availability of fuel for the foreseeable future."
Instead, he said there was "sufficient Pu-238 and capability to process it for any missions envisioned through at least 2030."
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