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Defense Intelligence Reference Document Positron Aerospace Propulsion

Defense Intelligence Agency · 35 pages · text from the file's own layer

This unclassified Defense Intelligence Reference Document from the Defense Intelligence Agency is dated 2 March 2010. It was produced in FY 2009 under the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications (AAWSA) Program. The report reviews work on using positrons as aerospace fuel. It covers air-breathing turbojet and ramjet engines, unmanned aircraft, missiles, single-stage reusable vehicles, positron rockets and a crewed Mars mission, along with how positrons could be produced and stored. It concludes that a first positron-powered flight around the globe could be possible within 10 years.

  • p. 5 …This paper is an anthology of that work and not a general review of antimatter propulsion…
  • p. 7 …Because of the aforementioned performance bounds of combustion engines, the aeronautic industry has worked diligently to…
  • p. 13 …Defense, NASA, and the aerospace industry are working to eliminate multistage rockets for access to low…
  • p. 16 …28 In a solid-core positron rocket, positrons heat a hydrogen working fluid through an attenuating…
  • p. 18 …heated H: • Propellant-heated He • Working fluids for power • Working fluids for power systems - inert gas…
  • p. 21 …was assumed to be parabolic for this work. 38 To make the Sanger photon rocket practical…
  • p. 22 …be possible • Hot-bleed line possible Future work • Efficiency study Gas-Core Sanger Ablation 1000 - 2500…
  • p. 23 …consumption does not dominate rocket positron consumption. ◄ Work 5 Rf'!gf'l'M'rllto.- JC~ ~ 4…
  • p. 31 …What lifetimes might be expected working Figure 22. TEM of Silica Aerogel (courtesy with this material…
UNCLASSIFIED/ ;<F&lil: 8FFIIItliL '1181!! 8HLY
• Environmental/pollution monitoring.
• Fire detection and monitoring.
• Aerial surveying.
• Weather and atmospheric monitoring.
• Border patrol.
• Emergency communications relay.
• Drug interdiction.
• Law enforcement.
• Highway/road monitoring.
• Search and rescue.
Commercial
• Iceberg patrol/tracking in shipping lanes.
• Railway/pipeline/power line monitoring.
• Commercial fishing reconnaissance/sea-life monitoring.
• Environmental/pollution monitoring.
• Livestock monitoring.
• Mineral exploration.
• Weather sensing.
• Agriculture.
Additional advantages to the commercial airline industry:
• Less propellant means increased payload/passenger per aircraft.
• Global nonstop flights are possible.
• Increase in structural mass allows more electronics/passenger amenities.
RAMJET-ASSISTED MISSILE (RAM)
The BOMARC 440-kilometer (km)-range antiaircraft missile was developed by the U.S.
Air Force in the 1950s to counter Soviet bombers. In the 1960s, the Talcs, a long-range
surface-to-air missile, was developed by the U.S. Navy and later converted to the
Vandal missile. Both ramjets (Figure 8) activated at mach 1.
7
UNCLASSIFIED/1'F8R 8ffl@Itllt ~31!! SHE I

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Report, from the dia collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 35 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.