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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.
“Low Earth orbit”6 pages
UNCLASSIFIED//F811. 8FFll!lllit 1!1!11!! 911E I Chapter 7: Conclusions Among the various aneutronic fusion propulsion technologies developed, Robert Bussard and his colleagues appear to have the best developed proposals. All nuclear fusion designs rely on ignition of the fusion reactions that will consume less energy than is produced by fusion. This hurdle is significant and has thwarted the ability for fusion reactors to generate commercial electricity. Antimatter engines are a more promising technology, since the technique to harvest and store small amounts of antihydrogen already exists. Antimatter is a denser form of energy than fusion fuels and presents the possibility of creating a rocket that approaches the speed of light relative to Earth. The major hurdles to antimatter propulsion include the production of commercial quantities of antihydrogen and the safe transport of antimatter from the earth's surface into space. 29 UNCLASSIFIED/ ,'1'81l 91'1'1@111it 1!1!11!! 8HLV
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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.