Orbiting Rainbows: Optical Manipulation of Aerosols and the Beginnings of Future Space Construction

Closeout Summary: Th ework in Phase 1 was distributed among the following tasks: •Task 1: Kick-off activity •Task 2: Optical manipulation requirement definition •Task 3: Imaging system requirement definition •Task 4: Integrated mission scenario requirement definition •Task 5: Prepare and coordinate report and close-out activity To accomplish these tasks, we had identified the following milestones: •M1, at Start of Study: Kick off meeting for initial coordination between team members, and subcontract initiation. •M2, at end of Task 2: Cloud manipulation requirements developed •M3, at end of Task 3: Imaging system requirements developed •M4, at end of Task 4: Autonomy requirements developed •M5, at Study Completion: Final report completed Our initial plan was to address the overall mission design, find one or more candidate system architectures for the aerosol imaging system (for example: optical imager, hyper-spectral remote sensing), and identify technology gaps by addressing one or more of the following areas: a) Identification of practical methodologies to deploy and maintain an active cloud in space, b) Determination of requirements for extrapolation of optical lift technology to manipulation of macroscopic cloud, c) Determination of conditions required by aperture to function as either a transmitter, receiver, or lens, as a single or multiple aperture, d) Determination of key material/thermal properties of cloud, e) Determination of key miniaturization requirements to enable a minimum of autonomy (power, GNC, data transfer) at the grain level, f) Assessment of risk areas and mitigation plans for areas such as excessive scattering, loss of phase coherence, and orbital debris generation. g) Summary of findings and layout of plan forward to Phase II. Of this ambitious list, we have successfully addressed a), b), c), f), g). Points d), e), and partially f) (orbital debris mitigation) were left for Phase II, as we realized that they depended of a specific system architecture, yet to be developed at the time of the Phase 1 report. Furthermore, Milestone M2 (Cloud manipulation requirements developed) has been met, and is discussed in the section on Novel Techniques for Deployment, Cooling, and Reforming the Cloud of this report, Milestone M3 (Imaging system requirements developed) has been met, and is discussed in the section Exploring New OpticalSystem Options of this report, and Milestone M4 (Autonomy requirements developed) has been met, and is discussed in the section on Cloud Engineering of this report. In summary, we have conducted a preliminary assessment of the initial feasibility of the concept, will have identified credible system architectures, and determined the crucial design parameters.