Documents / Report
This Defense Intelligence Reference Document, prepared by the Defense Intelligence Agency under its Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications (AAWSA) Program and dated 14 December 2009, is a white paper on programmable matter and smart materials. It covers quantum dots, metamaterials, liquid crystals, dynamic windows and spacecraft thermal management, and describes a future space station scenario. It concludes that even partial realization could bring significant gains in spacecraft energy efficiency, safety and mission flexibility.
“The Advance”7 pages
UNCLASSIFIED/ ,'1"1!11'- l!ll"l"ll!lllit lal!i! s••t~r Power & Control Signals Figure 4. Wellstone Fiber. A notional "Wellstone" fiber uses careful arrangements of conductors, semiconductors, and insulators to produce a long, flexible cylinder whose surface is studded with artificial atoms. When woven together, these fibers create a bulk material whose properties are programmable via external signals. In the future, advanced supercomputers may be able to monitor the objects around us-our desks, our countertops, our walls and windows and chairs-and modify their properties to suit the needs of the moment. Transparent or opaque? Reflective or absorptive? Conductive or insulating? Magnetic? Flexible? Luminous? In theory, a block of true Programmable Matter should be able to select any point on any of these axes at any time. Other effects may be desired as well, including magnetoresistivity, photo-/thermo-/piezoelectric effects, superconductivity, and the ability to perform computations (a truly "smart" smart material). Unfortunately, many of these traits are strongly correlated, so that, for example, a material that managed to be both electrically conductive and thermally insulative probably could not be made transparent as well. A computer is unlikely to double as an air conditioner. Still, the possible combinations-the number of things we could actually do-would be much larger than the (already vast) range of natural material combinations. Although the smart matter of 2050 will probably be operated electrically, electrical operation presents a number of challenges today. First, the required nanostructures are very small and intricate, with manufacturing tolerances that push or exceed the limits of current technology. Second, the control wires, electrodes, and other conductors in such devices mean they will likely be vulnerable to electromagnetic interference. Like a pocket calculator in a microwave oven, programmable materials face a harsh electromagnetic environment and will need to be shielded and safeguarded against spurious behavior. In addition, there is the threat of hackers. As our society turns over the control of more and more infrastructure to computers, we add not only new strengths but also new vulnerabilities. We must be extremely cautious about handing malicious hackers the keys to matter itself! 6 UNCLASSIFIED// FOR OFFICIAL USE one,
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Report, from the dia collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 20 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.