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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.
UNCLASSIFIED/ /1'9R 81'1'!@1!illt lt!iE 8Hl::Y In addition, sharp temperature discontinuities can be an energy source. A Peltier junction can be run in reverse so that heating one side of it and cooling the other produces a voltage. This seems quite straightforward at the sunlight terminator of a spacecraft-the line dividing the sunward and shadowed faces. Here, although there exists very little direct solar energy, the temperature gradient can be quite steep, indicating a potentially quite large amount of harvestable energy that would otherwise go to waste. Still another way to harvest energy is through the piezoelectric effect-a voltage generated when certain materials are under pressure. Because the atmosphere within the spacecraft exerts a constant outward pressure on the hull, this seems a good candidate for energy scavenging as well. In addition, for areas of the spacecraft interior that are expected to receive intermittent pressure (for example, because crew members bump up against them), this energy can be harvested as well. The total energy of these interactions may not be very large, but for programmable materials that would otherwise be sitting idle, energy scavenging is an excellent activity even at very low efficiency. Smart materials can also be used to store the energy they generate. A capacitor is simply a pair of conductors with an insulator between them, which can separate charges under the influence of a voltage, sending electrons to one side and holes to the other. This separation of charges, like the separation of chemical ions in a battery, stores energy. Automotive ultracapacitors have a bright future, and replacing their "holey carbon" with nanostructured programmable materials may allow storage of even more concentrated charges. Superconducting loop batteries are another possible storage mechanism, particularly on the shadowed side of the spacecraft, where cryogenic temperatures are easily achieved. Advanced Concepts in Programmable Materials Programmable materials can assume novel, unnatural configurations, but their primary advantage is that their properties can be changed on demand. Thus, it becomes possible, for example, to reconfigure a single spacecraft attitude sensor to operate as a sun sensor, horizon sensor, or star sensor, as required. The same technology can convert any black-and-white imaging sensor into a multispectral sensor-at low cost and with no moving parts. In fact, a single device could be a receiver for optical or infrared signals, a tunable optical or infrared filter, or a precision light source for calibrating other sensors. In addition, when not in use, the device can serve as a photovoltaic cell, converting sunlight into additional electricity. In fact, the inherent re-programmability of the material properties means devices incorporating dynamic materials can be adapted to novel purposes that were not anticipated at the time of manufacture. In the future, dynamic materials may serve in such applications as polarizers, magnetic and electric field sensors, and color-changing solar sail controllers for station keeping. This open-ended flexibility has the potential to dramatically improve the value and performance of spacecraft that lie beyond our current capabilities. UNCLASSIFIED//F8R 8FF1G'IO! 1155 AN! Y 12
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Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 20 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.