Documents / Report
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.
“The Times”8 pages
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Benefits of using positrons for a Mars mission include:
• The "disposable liV" used to propel TMI stages into low-probability Earth or Mars
intercepts can be eliminated, reducing total propellant mass.
• Reduction in shielding and engine mass give lower initial mass low Earth orbit for
launch vehicles or faster transits for piloted missions.
• The ERV uses a positron engine instead of LOX/CH4. This gives significant mass
savings or an equivalent reduction in Mars-to-Earth return time for astronauts.
• The improvement in lsp translates to either a reduced launch payload mass for cargo
missions or reduced transit times for piloted missions to Mars.
• More chemical propellant can be stored on the lander to improve aerobraking or
landing strategies that reduce hazards for astronauts.
Launch dates are set for around 2030. Assuming minimum liV for Mars opposition-class
missions, interplanetary scenarios are illustrated in Figure 16. The liV for an insertion
trajectory into Mars for the manned mission (Figure 16b) is liV = 3.7 km/sec. Each
manned trajectory assumes a 18O-day transit time.
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Figures 16. Mars Trajectories (X-coordinates defined in direction of Aries): (a) 2029 cargo mission; (b)
2031 manned lander to Mars; (c) 2033 manned return to Earth; (d) 2035 manned lander to Mars, if necessary
(courtesy Positronics Research LLC) 52
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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.