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This Defense Intelligence Reference Document (DIA-08-1011-001), dated 1 November 2010, was prepared by the Defense Intelligence Agency's Defense Warning Office under the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications program. It covers nanosatellite technologies, laser Lightcraft propulsion, a weapon mission selection study and a multi-megawatt laser study. The author recommends that the Department of Defense, working with NASA, bring laser Lightcraft propulsion research back to the United States and restart the Air Force X-50LR test flight program.
From the source: Release of 2026-09-18 Incident: 11/1/10, 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 laser-propelled “Lightcraft” as a possible low-cost method to launch very small satellites into low Earth orbit by using a remote high-energy laser to supply most of the propulsion energy rather than relying entirely on onboard energy sources. The report combines a survey of nanosatellite trends with a review of “Lightcraft” propulsion concepts, vehicle design, beam-control requirements, and mission studies, and argues that the most promising application is the launch of nano- or pico-satellites, especially Earth- and space-observing payloads of a few kilograms or less. It presents the concept as potentially much cheaper than conventional multistage rockets for very small payloads, while also noting significant practical constraints including strict beam-riding geometry, atmospheric losses, demanding pointing and adaptive-optics requirements, and heavy dependence on large ground-, sea-, or air-based laser infrastructure. Overall, the document presents laser “Lightcraft” as a technically plausible launch concept whose attractiveness depends on whether the supporting laser and beam-control system can be made reliable and economical at operational scale.
UNCLASSIFIED/ /fOR. 8FFI61Ak U&F QJsll.¥ plasma, creating downward thrust expansion. Multiple laser pulses and an atmospheric refresh of breakdown air generate the flight. Th is airbreathing pulsed-detonation engine concept owes its origins to the German V-1 "Buzz Bomb" of WW II which ran on aviation fuel. For the purpose of this report, we envision a Lightcraft Earth-to-Orbit (ETO) transportation system that operates according to the following scenario. The airbreathing engine mode develops quasi-steady thrust by pulsing at a variable rate that depends on the Mach number and altitude flown along the flight trajectory to orbit. Once the Lightcraft reaches very high altitude and climbs above the atmosphere, it begins to operate in the thermal rocket mode using onboard propellant to convert and expand the laser energy for propulsion. The Lightcraft is spin-stabilized and can be launched vertically upward or on a slant upward trajectory, hover in mid-air, and undergo powered descent and landing. The ground-based laser beam generator system consists of the following: 1) power supply; 2) high-power (megawatt-class) laser beam generator/transmitter using novel beam optics; and 3) automated tracking, hand-off and safety systems. HISTORY OF THE LIGHTCRAFT TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATION PROGRAM The laser Lightcraft project originally grew out of the Lightcraft Technology Demonstration Program funded by the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO) Laser Propulsion Program in the late 1980's. In the 1990's, a joint program involving the NASA-Marshall Space Flight Center and the Propulsion Sciences and Advanced Concepts Division of the AFRL Propulsion Directorate developed and tested an experiment to determine the feasibility of using high-power pulsed lasers to launch a spacecraft into orbit. Successful tests at the White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) High Energy Laser Systems Test Facility (HELSTF) demonstrated the first passively controlled vertical free flight of an object that was propelled by the U.S. Army's 10 kW Pulsed Laser Vulnerability Test System (PLVTS) infrared CO2 laser. Laser boost capability was demonstrated at the HELSTF with a Lightcraft reaching 43 m vertically in 2-second gyroscopically stabilized free flights, which was followed by horizontal guide-wire flights of 121.9 m lasting 10 to 20 seconds (see Figure 2 through Figure 6). A subsequent series of test flights achieved an altitude of 38. 7 m. L. Myrabo (private communication, Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst., Troy, NY, 2009) recently reported vertical Lightcraft test flights achieving 68 m altitude. This achievement can be compared to the first successful flights of Robert Goddard's liquid propellant chemical rocket, which attained a height of 12.5 m after a 2.5 second burn in March 1926. In sharp contrast with Goddard's rockets, there is absolutely no fuel on board the prototype Lightcraft, which has a diameter of 10 cm, mass of 20 to 40 g, and is machin ed from a solid block of 6061-T6 aluminum. Five different Lightcraft designs have been flight-tested using the pointing and tracking system on the PLVTS laser. Current Lightcraft designs are lim ited to about 60 g mass and 15 cm in diameter by the PLVTS laser. A megawatt-class laser will be necessary for a larger kilo-class Lightcraft to reach orbit and components for these lasers exist, which would demonstrate the feasibility of this technology for low cost access to space. UNCLASSIFIED//FOR O61ilCl.li.k U&& 8Ptl'l 13
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Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 77 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.