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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. 13 …The only commands that the ground system sends would be program loads to resolve or work…
  • p. 15 …This concept has the advantage of using the ambient air as the working fluid in the…
  • p. 24 …And vehicle synthesis work determined that the remaining masses for the Lightcraft airframe, propulsion, and control…
  • p. 27 …This comparison is for a Lightcraft trajectory determined from optimization work during the latter phases of…
  • p. 56 …thermal properties in order to make them work. Thermal management is one of the many challenges…
  • p. 63 …As in many spectral regions, it is not easy to make resonator mirrors; many FELs work…
  • p. 71 …It is expected that all of the R&DTE work presently being done by the various…
UNCLASSIFIED/ ,'f81l 8ffl@lit.la tl91!! 9Hl:Y
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Mitigating the Atmosphere with
Adaptive Optics
• Beacon
00
.~
~• The AO System needs to operate (sense, compute, and ad1ust the deformable
I mirror} approx.> 10X faster than the atmosphere changes (-10's -100's hz}
Figure 36. HEL Adaptive Optics System (courtesy of the Directed Energy Professional
Society).
All of these HEL beam control innovations can be quickly adapted to laser propulsion
applications with little or no additional technical modifications or R&DTE. It is expected
that all of the R&DTE work presently being done by the various DoD directed energy
weapons/HEL programs can be immediately leveraged for laser Lightcraft nano-/pico-
satellite programs should they become established. Primary mirrors with exit apertures
of~ 10 m will be required to launch laser-propelled Lightcraft from ground/sea to LEO
while apertures on aircraft-mounted laser beam control optics will be~ 1.0 m.
67
UNCLASSIFIED/ )F8A 8FFI&I.«1k Wfi&i a••k>/

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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.