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Defense Intelligence Reference Document Advanced Nuclear Propulsion For Manned Deep Space Missions
Defense Intelligence Agency · 37 pages · text from the file's own layer
This Defense Intelligence Reference Document from the Defense Intelligence Agency, dated 11 March 2010, was produced under the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications (AAWSA) Program. It argues that spaceships powered by deuterium thermonuclear reactions could be built with current science and technology. The paper covers ignition by GeV proton beams, magnetic insulation, the Super Marx generator and conjectured chemical superexplosives, and it concludes that such craft could make manned exploration of the entire solar system possible.
“small beings”13 pages
- p. 6 …He remains convinced
that small, clean bombs could propel Orion - but he still fears more than…
- p. 8 …The comparatively small amount of energy needed for the separation can ideally be
drawn from a…
- p. 9 …laser level can then be removed
from the rod by a small Q-switched laser, the…
- p. 10 …For the newly formed electron cloud to be stable, its maximum electron number density
must be…
- p. 13 …for a small DT sphere.
A configuration of this kind can still be used to burn…
- p. 14 …The
energy required would be about 10 4 times larger, or about 104 MJ-for all…
- p. 16 …There the thrust and specific impulse are comparatively huge, but a comparatively
small explosive yield is…
- p. 17 …This problem can be overcome through the nonfission ignition of small fusion
explosions. A first step…
- p. 19 …There
the driver energy, but not the driver, may be rather small. A direct way requires…
- p. 20 …Therefore, the yield of the
deuterium fusion explosions can be made much smaller, eliminating the need…
- p. 22 …A small high-voltage generator driven by a
small onboard fission reactor can make the initial…
- p. 23 …pulses can be released within 10 nanoseconds. A laser pulse from a small Q-switched
argon…
- p. 31 …would be much more economical if it could be done with a chain of small nuclear…
11 March 2010
ICOD: 1 December 2009
DIA-08-1003-007
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Defense
Intelligence
Reference
Document
Acquisition Threat Support
Advanced Nuclear Propulsion
for Manned Deep Space
Missions
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Report, from the dia collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 37 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.