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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 …Ground/Sea-to-Space Concept ............................................................. 27 Figure 15. Air-to-Space Concept ......................................................................... 28 Figure 16. Schematic…
  • p. 31 …Ground/Sea-to-Space Concept: Appropriate rotation of a high-energy laser beam, emanating from a…
  • p. 32 …more than about 10 MW for ground/sea-based lasers, and no more than about 2…
  • p. 33 …SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS Ground/Sea to Space (ETO) 261 If laser propulsion can provide nearly all…
  • p. 34 UNCLASSIFIED/ /1"91t 9ffU!l"I!! l!l!il! 8111!!¥ ground, sea and air launches of…
  • p. 37 …favorable for Lightcraft than air-to- ground/sea or air-to-air missions, which are not…
  • p. 39 …to be an attractive alternative to ground/sea-based laser Lightcraft systems. In this case, airborne…
  • p. 43 …would allow detection of most air, land, sea, and space targets, as well as many "low…
  • p. 64 …The Naval Sea Systems Command's (NAVSEA) Directed Energy and Electric Weapon Systems (DE&EWS) Program…
  • p. 67 …Lightcraft nanosat or picosat from the ground, sea, or air, it will be necessary to control…
  • p. 68 …beam train suitable for ground, airborne and sea platforms. • Primary mirror which is also a deformable…
  • p. 71 …to launch laser-propelled Lightcraft from ground/sea to LEO while apertures on aircraft-mounted laser…
  • p. 72 …The entire Lightcraft launch system is comprised of a ground, sea, or airborne laser beam generator…
  • p. 73 …Launching a laser-propelled Lightcraft nanosat/picosat from the ground, sea, or air into LEO requires…
UNCLASSIFIED/ ,'f81l 8ffl@lit.la tl91!! 9Hl:Y
I
Mitigating the Atmosphere with
Adaptive Optics
• Beacon
00
.~
~• The AO System needs to operate (sense, compute, and ad1ust the deformable
I mirror} approx.> 10X faster than the atmosphere changes (-10's -100's hz}
Figure 36. HEL Adaptive Optics System (courtesy of the Directed Energy Professional
Society).
All of these HEL beam control innovations can be quickly adapted to laser propulsion
applications with little or no additional technical modifications or R&DTE. It is expected
that all of the R&DTE work presently being done by the various DoD directed energy
weapons/HEL programs can be immediately leveraged for laser Lightcraft nano-/pico-
satellite programs should they become established. Primary mirrors with exit apertures
of~ 10 m will be required to launch laser-propelled Lightcraft from ground/sea to LEO
while apertures on aircraft-mounted laser beam control optics will be~ 1.0 m.
67
UNCLASSIFIED/ )F8A 8FFI&I.«1k Wfi&i a••k>/

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Report, from the dia collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 77 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.