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/ ,'-F8A 8FFI~IIP 1!55 0111 Y Aerospace Applications of Programmable Matter Introduction For the owners of a $100 million satellite-a TV broadcast satellite, for example-avoiding bankruptcy often depends on the spacecraft's continued good health until its scheduled replacement is in orbit. Unfortunately, numerous failure modes are possible, including blown fuses, failed sensors, and browned-out solar arrays. The common trait of most such failures is that they cannot be repaired from the ground. In addition, it is not typically possible to repurpose a spacecraft or its components for new services that no one foresaw at the time of manufacture. Either way, a new satellite is required. However, when sensors, filters, emitters, and photovoltaic solar panels are made of Programmable Matter smart materials, the solution to a component failure or new mission requirement might be as simple as a software update. Other advantages of dynamic materials include advanced energy management and energy scavenging from a variety of sources. Smart materials can even create new defensive capabilities, such as chameleon-style camouflage, deflection of laser beams, and even outright invisibility. If it becomes possible to change the properties of certain materials on demand, based on remotely triggered instructions, the benefits for spacecraft-both crewed and autonomous-will be considerable. This white paper-by no means an exhaustive reference-is intended to serve as a primer on the principles behind smart materials and their possible aerospace applications over the next 50 years. iv UNCLASSIFIED/ /EAR OEEICJ0k 11£1iii sn•LY
Not linked to a story yet.
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.