AAWSAP DIRD, Aerospace Applications of Programmable Matter, December 2009

This Defense Intelligence Reference Document, DIA-08-0911-016, is dated 14 December 2009. It was prepared by the Defense Warning Office's Acquisition Support Division at the Defense Intelligence Agency and is one of a series of FY 2009 advanced technology reports under the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications program. It is a primer on programmable matter and smart materials such as quantum dots, metamaterials and liquid crystals, and on how they could manage heat and energy and provide camouflage on spacecraft. It concludes that the possible gains would be significant and well worth pursuing.

From the source: Release of 2026-09-18 Incident: 12/14/09, Las Vegas, Nevada. Released with redactions. This document is a Defense Intelligence Reference Document (DIRD), a technical reference format used by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) to capture baseline knowledge on a specific topic for later analytic use. DIRDs are best understood as reference and synthesis products rather than as original research. It is one of 38 DIRDs produced under the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP) between 2009 and 2011. Because AAWSAP’s scope permitted a broad range of supporting topics, not every DIRD in the series directly concerns aerospace systems or future threat assessment. The following summary reflects the DIRD’s scope and framing at the time of writing and should not be read as implying current validation of the concepts discussed. This DIRD describes “programmable matter” as smart materials whose properties can be changed on command, potentially allowing spacecraft components to change function through software updates rather than physical repair or replacement. The report suggests that such materials could someday enable adjustable sensors, smart windows, heat control, energy collection, active camouflage, and systems that switch between different functions, making spacecraft more flexible and adaptable. At the same time, it presents the idea as highly speculative and emphasizes major technical obstacles, including manufacturing at extremely small scales, shielding against radiation and electromagnetic interference, managing temperature effects, reducing component failures, and preventing hacking or malicious control. Overall, the document presents programmable matter as a promising long-term concept over the next 50 years, while judging that simpler near-term uses such as smart windows and energy-saving surface materials are far more realistic than the more ambitious aerospace applications.

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Hot Face
Current Out
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Current In
Cold Face
Figure 7. Peltier Junction Heat Pump. Running an electrical current through this device will drive thermal
energy into the upper conductor, which grows hot. The lower conductors lose energy and become cold. The same
principle works in reverse: heating the top conductor (or cooling the bottom one) will create an electrical voltage
across the device.
Unfortunately, natural materials are relatively poor at this-the best efficiencies
achieved with them so far are around 10 percent. An optimal thermoelectric material
would be simultaneously a strong electrical conductor-perhaps even a
superconductor-and an excellent thermal insulator.
Fortunately, in 2001, scientists at the Research Triangle Institute in North Carol!na used
semiconductor superlattices to create a Peltier junction that operated at 2.5 times the
efficiency and 23,000 times the speed of all previous designs. The electrically
semiconductive superlattice materials were unusually good radiators-and unusually
poor conductors-of heat.
For spacecraft hulls fashioned from programmable materials, it should be possible to
create Peltier coolers on any surface in order to pump heat out of one area and divert it
to another. In addition, it may be desirable to manipulate the thermal conductivity of
the spacecraft skin-highly conductive in some areas, highly insulating in others-either
to smooth out temperature differences between the sunward and shadowed sides of the
spacecraft or, in some cases, to accentuate them (for example, so that a radiator,
precision blackbody, or cryogenic instrument on the shadowed side remains as cold as
possible).
Finally, it may be desirable to store heat for later release . This can be accomplished, for
example, by placing an insulating barrier around a hot portion of the spacecraft skin
while also reducing the emissivity of the hot spot so its ability to radiate the heat away
into space is minimized. Later, the hot spot can be reconnected to the rest of the
spacecraft skin through conductive bridges, allowing the heat to escape and spread out.
In addition, thermal management of the spacecraft interior will provide significant
benefits for the overall energy budget. The table below details the energy consumption
of a typical household (a reasonable analog for a crewed spacecraft, with the exception
of energy required for air circulation and other life support functions) .
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