AAWSAP DIRD, Positron Aerospace Propulsion, March 2010

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.

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67 G. A. Smith, "Long -Term Confinement of Dense Positron Plasmas", Final Technical Report, AFRL Contract
F08630-02 -C-0017, Eglin AFB, FL, January 23 (2007) .
68 Ibid .
69 G. A. Smith, "Positron Energy Conversion (PEC)", 53th JANNAF Propulsion Meeting, Subcomm ittee on Futu re
Technologies for Spacecraft Propu lsion (2005 0356 EA), CPIAC JSC CD43 December ( 2005).
70 G. A. Smith, "Stabilization and Long Term Confinement of Atomic Positronium ", Final Technical Report, AFRL
Contract F08630-02-C-0018, Eglin AFB, FL, January 23 (2007) .
71 S. J. Hoffman and D. I. Kaplan, eds. "Human Exp loration of Mars : The Reference Mission of the NASA Mars
Exploration Study Team," NASA Special Publication 6107, JSC (1997) .
72 G. A. Smith, "Stabilization and Long Term Confinement of Atomic Positronium", Final Technical Report, AFRL
Contract F08630-02-C-0018, Eglin AFB, FL, January 23 (2007).
73 J. Lu, "Classical Trajectory Monte Carlo Simulation of Ion-Rydberg Atom Collisions", Ph . D. Dissertation,
University of Bielefeld, Germany, May (2003) .
74 Ibid .
75 K. Sudarshan et al., J. Phys: Condens . Matter 19, 386 (2007) .
76 G. A. Smith, "Stabilization and Long Term Confinement of Atomic Positronium ", Final Technical Report, AFRL
Contract F08630-02-C-0018, Eglin AFB, FL, January 23 (2007).
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