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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. 3 …Laser Lightcraft Weapon Mission Selection Study .................................. 27 Chapter 4: Summary of Multi-Megawatt Laser Study for…
  • p. 5 …Many of these missions require numerous small spacecraft in a constellation or "swarm." These include orbital…
  • p. 7 …Simple, effective methods of thermal control are essential to keep the nanosat operational during extreme temperature…
  • p. 8 …GUIDANCE, NAVIGATION AND CONTROL Guidance Navigation and Control (GN&C) subsystem key technologies and concepts have…
  • p. 13 …Streamlined testing is needed for up to 100 or 1000 nanosats per mission. Performing a complete…
  • p. 14 …the mission lifetime. The remote agents achieve this goal by monitoring and appropriately controlling nanosat subsystems…
  • p. 33 …Thus, the selected Lightcraft missions are launch vehicle missions involving 29 UNCLASSIFIED//F&R 8FFI&I…
  • p. 40 …An air-launched Lightcraft launch vehicle mission, involving the transport of lasers and Lightcraft on medium…
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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.
41
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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.