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This Defense Intelligence Reference Document, prepared by the Defense Intelligence Agency and dated 8 March 2010, was produced under the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications (AAWSA) Program. It gives a historical and technical review of how to reach space and return. It covers hypersonic gliders, air-breathing and rocket propulsion, thermodynamics and materials, and launch options. It argues that reliable, schedulable access to low Earth orbit is mainly a hardware and propulsion problem rather than a technology one.
UNCLASSIFIED/ }F9A. 9FFlil.t.k WlilE 8Hk¥ veterans responded, "It was not a technology issue; it was a hardware issue." In a keynote address to the Aeronautical Revolutionary Concepts Workshop sponsored by the Vehicle Applications Panel of the National Research Council and held at NASA Ames in July 1984, then-Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Productivity, Technology, and Innovation Dr. D. Bruce Merrifield identified the problem of translating ideas into products as preparing technology for product manufacture. Dr. Merrifield drew an analogy between this step and Major League Baseball's farm system, which prepares skilled but untrained players for the major leagues. The United States assigns projects to accomplish technology tasks so the flow of production- ready hardware is always improving and is not fixed (see Figure 1). Innovation Focus: Preparation of Technology for Application .. Prototype 1aoa Technology I I P,oa,ci 1 ~· and Pilot H lmenm IGeneration Feas1btlity Develoomem , Plant Manurac1ure ' .... Commercialization ~ !nventk)n Translation ROLP 10% Cost Gap in effective preparation for application 90"/o Cost • l:RTA No Gap in transformation in United States 1983 Innovation in Aeronautics Workshop, NASA AMES to production Or.D. Bn.1ce Merrilleld Oeptment of Commerce Assistant Secretary tor Productivity, Technology and Innovation Figure 1. Hardware Flow Saturn I and Saturn V could be readied for a moon flight in such a short time because most of their hardware was based on a frozen design, proven production processes, and adaptation of existing hardware. Using a similar approach, current industrial capabilities can create the next practical system for accessing space. In the late 19SOs and early 1960s, the U.S. Air Force was working toward an operational capability analogous to its B-S2 fleets: flight operations when required or "on demand." After NASA was assigned vi UNCLASSIFIED/ ,<F9A. QFFI&IAk W81E 8HLY
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Report, from the dia collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 56 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.