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 OFFICl"L U.!I! er•tY The Mars reference mission 53 , 54 considered payload masses of 60,000 kg for 2015 missions. This can be reduced to 45,000 kg assuming technological advances by 2031 with a complete interplanetary spacecraft mass of 90,000 kg. In summary, the mission scenario for a positron spacecraft is similar to that for existing studies, but with the use of less costly launch vehicles. Every 778 days, two 45,000-kg payloads are launched from Earth using a Saturn V or equivalent chemical rocket. One payload is the unmanned system or manned crew lander sent to Mars; the other contains the positron propulsion system and the propellant tank. They are assembled as a complete unit in LEO. Unmanned systems are launched in advance of t he crewed system in order to ensure that the Martian habitat is well established. The crew arrives at Mars in late 2033, performs research for 1 year, and then returns home in a smaller positron spacecraft using a shorter trajectory. Artists' renditions of two possible positron spaceships previously described in this study are shown in Figure 17. (a) (b) Figure 17. Spacecraft Using Positron Engines. (a) Solid-core system enters Mars orbit; (b) Modified Sanger photon rocket system burns for landing on Mars (courtesy Positronics Research LLC) .55 Architectures for Mars exploration using a positron SSRV are summarized below: • Before humans leave for Mars on initial flights, cargo ships precede them to Mars on low-energy trajectories to take the components of a Mars space station (MSS) and necessary supplies, includi ng a Mars surface lander (MSL). The MSS will be similar to an Earth space station (ESS). The cargo ships will utilize positron rocket engines. • Manned positron SSRVs launched from Earth rendezvous in LEO with the ESS. The SSRV is a horizontal-takeoff, horizontal-landing winged-body, manned vehicle in which the first stages of flight use air-breathing engines with positrons heating the air. It switches to the rocket engine to complete the final ascent phase to LEO. • Once ready for interplanetary flights at the ESS, including refueling, the SSRV flies to Mars on a fast, high-energy trajectory, carrying a crew of five or six astronauts and powered by positron rocket engines. The SSRV conducts a rendezvous with the UNCLASSIFIED/ /FAA: AfiEICllL. Uiliii 0,.111¥ 21
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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.