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This Defense Intelligence Reference Document from the Defense Intelligence Agency, dated 1 November 2010, was produced under the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications (AAWSA) Program. It describes nanosatellite technologies and proposes launching nanosats into orbit with laser Lightcraft propulsion. It also covers a weapon mission selection study and multi-megawatt laser options. The author recommends that the Department of Defense and NASA bring Lightcraft R&D back to the United States and restart the X-50LR flight demonstration program.
“Low Earth orbit”7 pages
UNCLASSIFIED//FQA: QFFIGIOP 1155 ADI! X incrementally emplaced, upgraded, and even funded with capability growing as budget is available, as opposed to the usual all-or-nothing functioning of today's spacecraft. The antenna size is 20 km x 40 km and contains 150,000 picosats, each of which weighs 23 grams. The feed array is held in position by a 50 km long, lightweight tether against a counterweight. There is no truss or other structure. Each picosat is gravity- gradient stable, has a dipole array facing Earth, and a broader beam antenna array facing the receivers. The effective collecting aperture of the array is equal to that of an equivalent 80 m diameter filled aperture antenna. The coverage spot diameter can be varied by choosing the diameter of the array that is active, with spot sizes on Earth as small as 30 m at 10 GHz, 300 m at 1 GHz, or 3 km at 100 MHz. It can receive sub-watt signals from individual cell phones. The entire constellation weighs 3,500 kg, but that could be reduced in the future to 35 kg if Buckytubes are used to construct the system. HIGH RESOLUTION SURFACE SAMPLING RADIOMETRY Highly sensitive radiometry at low microwave frequencies with a small ground foot-print would result in high resolution microwave radiometry sampling maps of soil moisture and other surface characteristics, as well as passively detected larger targets. The constellation/array implementation follows that of the preceding concept (Future Nano- /Pico-Satellite Mission Concepts section), except that it is designed to map the surface radiation rather than detect discrete emitters. The antenna size is 8 km x 12 km and contains 12,000 picosats, each of which weighs 23 grams. The feed array is held in position by a 40 km long, lightweight tether against a counterweight. The constellation scans its coverage spot electronically in a 1,200 km zig-zag swath from its 4,000 km orbit by modulating the time or frequency shift of the ensemble of picosats. These picosats are similar to those in the Rotating Picosat Swarm Array Radio Frequency Collector section. The effective collecting aperture of the array is the sum of those of the picosats, and in this example, equal to that of an equivalent 11 m diameter antenna. However, the coverage spot diameter is set by the total aperture diameter of 8 km x 12 km, and thus is 100 m at 1 GHz. Five constellation/arrays would result in a 5 hour global revisit with zig-zag coverage of the scanned swaths. The entire constellation weighs 3,000 kg, but that could be reduced in the future to 30 kg if Buckytubes are used to construct the system. HIGH RESOLUTION SURFACE MAPPING RADIOMETRY Highly sensitive radiometry at low microwave frequencies with a very small foot-print on the ground would result in high resolution microwave radiometry maps of soil moisture and other surface characteristics and passively detected larger targets, with 100% of Earth's surface mapped with a 5 hour revisit time. The principle of operation is the same as that of the previous concept (High Resolution Surface Sampling Radiometry section), except that a multiple element detector array is used in a 38 UNCLASSIFIED/ /f8R 8FFHiilal k I 155 ADU X
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Report, from the dia collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 77 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.