Documents / Official release
This Defense Intelligence Reference Document was prepared by the Defense Intelligence Agency's Defense Warning Office and dated 2 March 2010. It is one of a series of advanced technology reports produced under the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications program. It looks at using positrons as fuel for air-breathing turbojets, ramjet-assisted missiles, single-stage reusable vehicles and rockets for a manned Mars mission, and it also covers positron production, costs and storage. It concludes that a first positron-powered flight around the globe could be possible within 10 years.
From the source: Release of 2026-09-18 Incident: 3/2/10, 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 examines positrons as a possible fuel for advanced aerospace propulsion, arguing that antimatter offers extraordinary energy density and could, in principle, support applications ranging from long-endurance aircraft and missiles to single-stage launch vehicles, onboard power systems, and crewed Mars missions. At the same time, it makes clear that the concept depends on resolving major unsolved problems in producing positrons in sufficient quantities and storing them safely for long periods, and much of the document’s discussion of flight systems and Mars missions remains conceptual rather than closely tied to demonstrated engineering practice. Its overall conclusion is that positron propulsion is theoretically attractive, but remains highly speculative as a practical technology because its core production and storage requirements remain unsolved.
UNCLASSIFIED/ /FOR. errl@IAL YSI: e .. tv THE SOLID-CORE POSITRON ROCKET Figure 11 depicts a solid-core positron-powered rocket, similar in many regards to the NERVA nuclear-thermal concept. 29 Attenuating HX Inlet Plenum Turbine & Exhaust Nozzle Hot Bleed Line Figure 11. Solid-Core Positron Rocket Engine With a Hot-Bleed Configuration (courtesy Positronics Research LLC) 30 The cryogenic hydrogen propellant is supplied from a storage tank through a high pressure pump and routed to cool the regenerative nozzle, the casing of the heat exchanger, and the central positron target tubes. Ps enters the in let plenum to the attenuator that is heated by gamma rays to high temperature. Hydrogen propellant passes through the attenuating matrix and is heated and exhausted through a nozzle to generate thrust. A small fraction of the hot exit propellant is bled off to a turbine that drives the high pressure feed pump. The high-temperature bleed can either be mixed with cold hydrogen to reduce its temperature or directly fed to the turbine. If it is directly fed to the turbine, it must be made of materials that can withstand high temperatures. The bleed flow is exhausted from a turbine exit nozzle to space a~er driving the turbine. As with the NERVA system, the positron solid-core concept is thermally limited by materials in the heating chamber. The difference is that the fission system requires a reactor and complex machinery, whereas the positron system relies on Ps atoms injected upstream from a storage unit. This has two advantages. First, a reduction in the engine mass for a given thrust is realized; second, there is greater choice in materials to be used in the heating chamber. A thermal-fluids analysis was conducted to predict performance. A specific impulse of 920 seconds is attainable with chamber temperatures at 3,000 Kelvin. The corresponding thrust and power emulate fission systems. Mars trip burn times are on UNCLASSIFIED/ /FOR. 8ffl@IAI:: W&lii 8P.l::lf 12
Not linked to a story yet.
Official release, from the pursue 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.