Documents / Report
This unclassified Defense Intelligence Reference Document from the Defense Intelligence Agency is dated 2 March 2010. It was produced in FY 2009 under the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications (AAWSA) Program. The report reviews work on using positrons as aerospace fuel. It covers air-breathing turbojet and ramjet engines, unmanned aircraft, missiles, single-stage reusable vehicles, positron rockets and a crewed Mars mission, along with how positrons could be produced and stored. It concludes that a first positron-powered flight around the globe could be possible within 10 years.
UNCLASSIFIED/;<F9A 9FFI1il.t.k l!j!ilE 8HLV THE SANGER PHOTON POSITRON ROCKET In 1953, German engineer Eugen Sanger proposed the photon rocket. One means of providing thrust was to shower a parabolic mirror with positron annihilation gamma rays.37 Unfortunately, there are no materials that reflect gamma rays at large angles. A schematic of a modified Sanger photon rocket is shown in Figure 13. Psis emitted in 'pellets' from several storage banks located behind the engine. Positrons are programmed by supporting fields to annihilate in front of a stiffened pressure plate, the shape of which was assumed to be parabolic for this work. 38 To make the Sanger photon rocket practical, solid propellant that can be ablated from the plate is added. Gamma rays deposit energy on the surface of the ablation material and jettison high-energy particles with large lsp. As the solid material recedes from the target, the location of the positron annihilation can be correspondingly moved inward to preserve focal properties of the system. A thickness of a few meters of material is sufficient for a planetary mission. PAYLOAD PEC SYSTEM (OPTIONAL) e+ TRAP BANKS SOLID ABLATION MATERIAL Figure 13. Modified Sanger Photon Rocket Concept (courtesy Positronics Research LLC) 39 The predicted lsp for this system results in fast transit times to Mars, warranting a positron power plant. Unlike the solid-core or gas-core concepts, there are no means to draw off some of the ablated material to provide power. A separate Brayton-cycle positron energy conversion system provides power to the pellet mass driver and other 16 UNCLASSIFIED//P8"1 8PPll!l"'I! l!l!il! 8111!¥
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Report, from the dia collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 35 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.