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Defense Intelligence Reference Document Laser Lightcraft Nanosatellites

Defense Intelligence Agency · 77 pages · text from the file's own layer

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.

  • p. 8 …The sensor must be capable of detecting Earth over a range of orbital radii with a…
  • p. 17 …For the purpose of this report, we envision a Lightcraft Earth-to-Orbit (ETD) transportation system…
  • p. 34 …not only placing nanosats into LEO at low cost (Figure 14), but also for performing much…
  • p. 42 …Each picosat is gravity- gradient stable, has a dipole array facing Earth, and a broader beam…
  • p. 43 …811L¥ push broom scanning mode for complete Earth coverage rather than only sampling coverage. The constellation…
  • p. 72 …The system is single-stage-to-orbit and completely reusable with no onboard propellant required (the…
  • p. 75 …J., et al. (1991), "System Requirements for Low-Earth-Orbit Launch Using Laser Propulsion," in Proc…
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1,000 nanosats attached to the tether. Each nanosat is a self-contained optical sensor
spacecraft, integrated into a 0.1 kg package. The sensor thus detects 1,000
wavelengths simultaneously. The sensor has a resolution as small as 40 cm on the
ground from GEO. Its field of view can be scanned over an area by tilting the ensemble
using MEMS FEEP thrusters on the nanosats, or libration modes can be excited in the
tether so that the field of view scans across a 2,000 km coverage area in a quasi-
random mode, eventually covering the entire area. These thrusters also serve for
stationkeeping. Its total weight is less than 900 kg in orbit, which can be reduced in
the future to 9 kg if Buckytubes are used to construct the system.
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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.