Documents / Official release
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/,'rOR: orrlCIAL USE O14Lf that has runways of reasonable length. An air-launched Lightcraft launch vehicle mission, involving the transport of lasers and Lightcraft on medium-sized bombers or transport aircraft, is also recommended if additional funding would become available. FUTURE NANO-/PICO-SATELLITE MISSION CONCEPTS Coherently cooperating "swarms" are a novel innovation for replaci ng structures with information by placing many formation-flown small satellites into a loose "swarm" and cause them to cooperate coherently. This is very different from the so-called distributed small satellite LEO constellations currently pursued in which individua l small spacecraft perform essentially the same functions as larger satellites but at lower spacecraft mass (or weight) and cost. These smaller spacecraft can be proliferated to provide greater geographical coverage for the same cost. The lower mass also saves launch costs, so the total system costs less for the same function performed with larger spacecraft. In contrast, the swarms, as described in the following sections, cooperate coherently and form a real distributed system in which the whole is more t han the sum of the parts. A generic description would be a constellation of small spacecraft each performing its separate function, but t hese functions combine to create at a central location a much larger virtual spacecraft, or sensor aperture, that exists solely because of the cooperation of the spacecraft. The following sections provide several examples of the implementation of such systems in which each of a large number of small satellites in a swarm or other constellation will radiate or receive signals and combine them in phase, or coherently, regardless of their actual location in orbit. This creates coherent RF or optical apertures that are essentially unlimited in size. Each satellite's position is only crudely station kept, and the satellites adjust the time delay or phase delay of the signals they repeat to compensate for their position errors, causing their repeated signals to add coherently at a collection point. This technique can be easily applied to RF transmitters and receivers, and with more demanding accuracy to optical transmitters and receivers. The result in either case is a large "swarm" or loose constellation of satellites that act as one large antenna or optical array, even though they are separate and their positions are neither constant nor lie along a parabola or plane in space. The individual satellites can be as simple as one element flying chips or as complex as today's self-contained sensing spacecraft of various sizes. The advantage of coherently cooperating distributed systems is that they can form sparse RF antennas and optica l sensors with diameters so large that they would be impossible to implement with filled apertures even if formed with adaptive membranes; and have orders of magnitude smaller mass. The re lative locations of individual spacecraft in the swarm can be controlled by MEMS FEEP propulsion, tethers, or by cleverly conceived orbits in which the elements of the array appear to orbit a common center within it, thus eliminating the need to use propulsion at least for first order station keeping. UNCLASSIFIED,<,<FOA QFFISIAL HSI!! 8HLY 36
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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.