system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Chemistry] How would you convert energy from radioactive decay into electricity in a rover like curiosity?
gpt
Through heat.

As the radioactive source decays it heats up. A temperature gradient can be turned into a voltage by a thermocouple. This voltage is actually quite substantial, generating far more electricity than the solar panels on Spirit and Opportunity, and powers the rover. The waste heat has the added benefit of being used to warm the rover's components, this is something that a solar powered rover would have to use it's, limited, electricity for.

It is not the first mission to use radioisotope thermoelectric power, the viking landers used it on mars and most deep space missions (voyager, cassini, pioneer, New Horizons) as solar panels become very ineffective as you move away from the Sun.