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Defense Intelligence Reference Document Laser Lightcraft Nanosatellites

Defense Intelligence Agency · 77 pages · text from the file's own layer

This Defense Intelligence Reference Document from the Defense Intelligence Agency, dated 1 November 2010, was produced under the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications (AAWSA) Program. It describes nanosatellite technologies and proposes launching nanosats into orbit with laser Lightcraft propulsion. It also covers a weapon mission selection study and multi-megawatt laser options. The author recommends that the Department of Defense and NASA bring Lightcraft R&D back to the United States and restart the X-50LR flight demonstration program.

  • p. 5 …the per-unit cost will be reduced to a small fraction of UNCLASSIFIED//F8A 8FFIQIOP !PSS…
  • p. 8 …Advanced microelectronic solutions are being developed to meet these challenges. The microelectronics developed must be modular…
  • p. 9 …The packaging method that will be chosen must have a small volume and small footprint (6…
  • p. 11 …This reduction will be accomplished by leveraging recent successful tests of a small cryogenic two-phase…
  • p. 13 …methods should be developed to verify quality and structural performance by testing a small subset of…
  • p. 22 …The dry spacecraft mass can be further reduced by two orders of magnitude, and thus the…
  • p. 24 …further indicated that small COTS chemical propulsion systems, with sufficient thrust, would be about a factor…
  • p. 32 …Lightcraft takeoff masses no more than about 20 kg can be accelerated to orbital velocities by…
  • p. 37 …Eliminating such satellite threats has not been examined in detail, but they could be rapidly eliminated…
  • p. 40 …A generic description would be a constellation of small spacecraft each performing its separate function, but…
  • p. 41 UNCLASSIFIED/,, OK 01 I ICIAE 652 one I These array functions can be made coherent over…
  • p. 42 …The coverage spot diameter can be varied by choosing the diameter of the array that is…
  • p. 43 …The relative positions of these picosat elements changes slowly, and only small and infrequent stationkeeping propulsive…
  • p. 44 …can be emplaced and replaced incrementally using laser- powered Lightcraft launch vehicles or even small conventional…
  • p. 45 …small as 40 cm on the ground from GEO. Its field of view can be scanned…
  • p. 50 …use N2, CO2, and small quantities of H2. • Subscale testing will be used to anchor the…
  • p. 53 …kW) and compact size need to be mounted on small tactical airborne platforms like the C…
  • p. 72 …This would be a constellation of small spacecraft each performing its separate function, but these functions…
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1,000 nanosats attached to the tether. Each nanosat is a self-contained optical sensor
spacecraft, integrated into a 0.1 kg package. The sensor thus detects 1,000
wavelengths simultaneously. The sensor has a resolution as small as 40 cm on the
ground from GEO. Its field of view can be scanned over an area by tilting the ensemble
using MEMS FEEP thrusters on the nanosats, or libration modes can be excited in the
tether so that the field of view scans across a 2,000 km coverage area in a quasi-
random mode, eventually covering the entire area. These thrusters also serve for
stationkeeping. Its total weight is less than 900 kg in orbit, which can be reduced in
the future to 9 kg if Buckytubes are used to construct the system.
41
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Report, from the dia collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 77 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.