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This Defense Intelligence Reference Document, dated 10 December 2010, was prepared by the Defense Intelligence Agency's Defense Warning Office under the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications program. It examines quantum computing and DNA-based molecular computing as options for onboard supercomputing in future spaceflight. It forecasts working ion trap quantum computers within 10 years, simple DNA tile computing within 20 years, and self-repairing DNA computers and hybrid quantum dot systems on a 40-year horizon.
From the source: Release of 2026-09-18 Incident: 12/10/10, 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 surveys advanced computing concepts for future space and automation applications, focusing on quantum and molecular (DNA-based) computing as potential alternatives to conventional silicon electronics. The report introduces quantum computing principles alongside DNA-based logic gates, self-assembly, and nanoscale repair mechanisms, arguing that these unconventional architectures might eventually offer advantages in radiation tolerance, physical robustness, and specialized onboard processing for space-based platforms. It notes that near-term practical barriers remain substantial. Quantum systems continue to depend on complex cryogenics, shielding, and unsolved reliability challenges, while DNA-based computing remains a far-future concept rather than a viable alternative to general-purpose processors. Overall, the document presents both frameworks as long-term possibilities to complement, rather than immediately replace proven space-qualified electronics. It concludes that the stronger, nearer-term cases for such architectures are in highly specialized or hybrid roles rather than in fully mature general-purpose onboard computing applications.
UNCLASSIFIED/ /EAR OEFIClt.k WSIE ertt I THE CLOSED BOX AND FAULT TOLERANCE In traditional silicon transistor circuits, once a bit is set to 1 or O by a gate or other device locking the output voltage, that value is expected to remain through subsequent clock cycles until deterministically changed.h Additionally, traditional circuits behave by the same rules for each clock cycle; that is, as more information is processed, repeated gate operation does not deteriorate the bit latching mechanism. This behavior is achieved by constantly providing energy to the circuits. Any interruption in this constant need for power from the outside and the integrity of the information in the computing circuit is lost. 1 A fundamental principle of quantum mechanics is that any external influence on a system necessarily disturbs the state of that system. This influence could be external disruption or internal leakage - either interaction will change the internal quantum state. This destructive process is known as decoherence. External influences will disturb the system and thus the circuits need to be isolated from the rest of the universe, also known as the 'closed box' requirement. Trial to trial variations in a quantum circuit produce an increasing deviation from an initial phase as the wave function evolves. This trial-to-trial deviation causes decoherence on a timescale termed T2*. Although a single trial in a quantum circuit could retain coherence longer than T2*, absent external influence the isolated internal circuit components must eventually come to thermal equilibrium through random processes: this occurs on timescale TL Moreover, the closed box cannot be perfect since a useful device requires some kind of input and output, thus some small interaction with the external environment is necessary. Random interactions with the environment from this isolation 'leakage' will dephase internal signals on timescale T2. These three time constants that describe the internal signal decays are very similar to the same named quantities in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). NMR is indeed a technology path under development for quantum circuits. Each technology and hardware design will be characterized in its isolation from external and internal influences by T2* (stable repeatability), Tl (resistance to entropy), and T2 (isolation from the rest of the universe). No design can be completely free of decoherence and the next consideration is how much decoherence is acceptable, or more precisely, what is the fault tolerance threshold for successful operation? Fault tolerance isn't much of a consideration in traditional processing architecture,i although it is a major consideration in storage and communication of information. To illustrate fault tolerance, consider a scheme of hard disk storage configuration where each 8-bit byte is written across 9 disks in a stripe-set configuration (one bit per disk, read in parallel). The extra disk holds parity information about the byte. Consecutive bytes shift the location of all bits one disk so the parity information isn't all stored on the same disk.k In the event one disk fails, each byte can be reconstructed from the other 8 disks using a software algorithm that automatically starts when the disk failure is detected. The broken hardware ca n be replaced and the data reconstructed while the system is operating in this slower 'limp' mode. Th is storage system is said to be fault tolerant. The h For those new to quantum phenomena, it may seem redundant to use the phrase "deterministically changed ." The phrase emphasizes the point that absent any error, classical circuits are always changed by intent, while quantum circuits include the element of random occurrence . ; Here we refer to the processing circuits themselves. Some types of memory and long term storage can of course hold information in isolation indefinitely. J A non-determ inistic result in processing hardware causes a fatal error in current designs. k The bitwise stripe-set is instructive on the principle at hand, but for engineering considerations, more complex configurations are used in practice. See Wikipedia " RAID " for actual data distribution schemes . UNCLASSIFIED// FOR OFFICIAL YSE 8P.k¥ 11
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Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 54 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.