Documents / Report
This Defense Intelligence Reference Document, dated 1 November 2010, was produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency under its Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications (AAWSA) Program. It surveys propulsion technologies that include chemical, ion, and nuclear fission rockets, fusion schemes, aneutronic fusion, and antimatter propulsion. It also covers radiation shielding and speculates on research needs over the next 30 years for missions from low Earth orbit to Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Alpha Centauri. The document concludes that aneutronic fusion promises to be an important mechanism for future space propulsion.
“Anderson”1 page
UNCLASSIFIED/ }F9A 9FFI1illlt '1181!! 8HLY In a second design, a nuclear reactor would be used to generate electricity onboard a spacecraft. The electrical power would provide energy for life support and much of the reactor output could be used to power an ion drive where high voltages would accelerate an ionized gas (usually xenon) to generate thrust. The thrust generated by ion drives is typically small (millinewtons), but continuous acceleration could provide enough velocity to reach Mars or the outer planets. Nuclear reactors have been used on spacecraft in the past, although their use is controversial. On 24 January 1978, for example, the Cosmos 954 Soviet spy satellite, complete with onboard plutonium-fueled nuclear reactor, crashed into the Arctic region of Canada. 9 The cleanup cost the Canadian government over U.S. $6 million, half of which was reimbursed by the USSR. The launch of a reactor into space always poses the danger of problems related to an accidental reentry that could cause significant hazards to populated areas. 12 UNCLASSIFIED//Flilll. lilFFUil,t.le lal!i! 8Hl!V
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Report, from the dia collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 50 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.