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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.
“The Advance”13 pages
UNCLASSIFIED/ ,'f811. 8ffiii,,k lalili Oalk¥ Figure 20. DARPA's High Energy Liquid Laser Area Defense System (courtesy of P. Saunders, AFRL/RDS, Kirtland AFB, NM). Unlike chemical and gas dynamic laser devices, bulk solid-state lasers possess the following unique characteristics, which make them highly competitive with any chemical or gas dynamic laser systems [30]: • Reliability. • High level of safety. • User-friendly. • Maintenance-free. • Low-cost performance, high-volume production. • Compact size. • Wide range of wavelength selection and wavelength tunability. • Variety of power oscillator or master oscillator-power amplifier (MOPA) designs. • Scalability of beam output power, variety of beam combining techniques: scalable to 1 MW beam power within 2 years. Typical solid-state lasers have the following technical features [30]: • Gain medium: 50 Host crystal [e.g., Yttrium Aluminum Garnet (YAG)], glass or ceramic (amorphous materials). - Impurity lasing ions deposited (or doped) in host [e.g., Neodymium (Nd 3+) or Ytterbium (Yb 3+)]. Range of beam wavelengths().) produced: 0.7 μm to> 2 μm. • Optically pumped with flash lamps or diode lasers. • Capable of high peak power pulses. UNCLASSIFIED/;CFQA: QFFI&lallk l!Hiiliii 8Hk¥
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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.