An insane thought

From Stone Age to Android Age the mankind has come a long way up. As a matter of fact, you might probably be owning something which is based on Android right now. I have become a huge fan since my relatively late entry into using Android OS about 1 year ago. 

Before that, I used to be very obstinate regarding my view on phones that why should I buy a high end one when the whole purpose of having a phone is to make voice calls and send short messages. Why should I use internet, play games and watch videos in a lilliputian screen when I have this awesome 22" LCD monitor with AMD Quad Core Processor bolstered by 4 GB RAM. But everything changed since I bought my new Android phone so much that now its totally integrated into my life. I am not gonna give a lecture on the awesomeness of Android and how it transfers its awesomeness into you. Come on, the whole world knows about it. But there is one thing that pisses me off.

You may already have guessed it right what I am mentioning about. Battery Life. It sucks and it freaks the bejesus out of me. Whatever it is, your Android phone's battery is most likely to be drained off within 24 hours. For me, its 12 now. I have used (probably many among you too) many battery saving apps from Google Play. Juice Defender was perhaps the best among them. But what these apps do can be done manually by you too. They automatically switch off your Wi-Fi or 3G when it is not in use and they can underclock your CPU. But these are things which can be done by you without using these apps. Its not rocket science. Infact, sometimes these apps can be a pain in the ass - you may have to multiply switch on your Wi-Fi or Mobile Data Networks for internet access. A reasonably 'appd' phone with an underclocked CPU works like a sloth. Why don't these proprietors provide customers batteries with awesome capacity. 

A couple of months ago, I was going through the technical aspects of 'Curiosity Rover'. I got baffled by its battery section. Now, in the previous two generations of Mars Rovers, NASA used solar panels for powering them. But solar panels don't work during night and they don't work during Martian winter either. That is, these previous two generations of rovers were not able to work half of the times.

The black tail holds the MMRTG of Curiosity.

So what kind of battery provides the energy for the Curiosity rover? NASA names it Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator or MMRTG. As baffling as its name sounds is the fact of using radioactive plutonium as a component in it. The principle is somewhat simple. Plutonium generates heat and thanks to Thomas Seebeck, this heat will generate a voltage with the help of thermocouples. MMRTG will be able to power Curiosity rover for almost 14 years! #flabbergasted

Can we get something like this in our phones? I know its totally insane and preposterous at this moment and the very idea of having a phone powered by a radioactive material nearby anywhere you let alone carrying it in your pockets beside your precious little/massive organs (our gonads are too friendly with radiation) may not seem sweet to many. But hey, back in the Stone Age, our forefathers didn't know Planet Earth existed. But right now, we are 'texting' an inaminate object in Mars and transferring photos with it.