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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. 9 …Dual or triple junction GaAs solar cells that give 18% conversion efficiency at end of life…
  • p. 21 …estimated launch costs are $20/kg to $600/kg of payload (not including life cycle and…
  • p. 28 …LIFE CYCLE OF LIGHTCRAFT SYSTEM Froning and Davis 26 found that ground-based laser costs comprised…
  • p. 51 …Note that this final cost estimate excludes the operations, life-cycle, and maintenance costs that are…
  • p. 66 …This figure was based on operations, life-cycle, and maintenance costs plus the cost of using…
  • p. 72 …600 per kg of payload, not including life-cycle and recurring launch operations costs. The entire…
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Free Electron Laser
High-energy free electrons from a particle accelerator (e.g., a high-voltage, high-
current electron injector gun) can emit amplified, coherent photons when they are sent
through an undulator (or "wiggler" magnets), which generates a periodically varying
magnetic field with a linear array of permanent or superconducting magnets. The
electron accelerator produces a micro-pulse of "electron bunches" moving at relativistic
speeds that are laterally accelerated (or "wiggled") by the alternating magnetic fields in
the undulator, thus releasing laser photons at optical wavelengths (see Figure 28 to
Figure 30). The optical laser radiation is amplified at the double-Doppler-shifted
wavelength of the undulator. The resulting laser beam photon energy depends on the
electron energy, the undulator period, and (weakly) the magnetic field strength. The
electron beam gets spent at the end of the lasing process.
Figure 28. Free-Electron Laser (courtesy of the Naval Post-Graduate School FEL Lab).
electron beam pulses optical
• • •wiggler laser
~ ' pulses
• • •i100
' partially
reflecting Photon Em1s1on transmitting
mirror mirror
Figure 29. Free-Electron Laser Mechanism (courtesy of the Naval Post-Graduate School FEL
Lab).
58
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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.