ATIONAL RECONNAISSANCE OFFICE

WASHINGTON. D.C.

OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR 13 December 1973

MEMORANDUM FOR DR. McLUCAS

SUBJECT: Status of Two NRO R&D Projects

liN

ATMOSPHERIC RESOLUTION LIMITATIONS

Some years ago, a test project involving balloon-mounted

cameras was undertaken to attempt to determine empirically

any resolution limitations imposed by the atmosphere. Dr.

Fubini is familiar with this project and believes the results

were at best inconclusive and certainly are not solid enough

upon which to base any decisions regarding the feasibility of

a VAR system. We agree with Dr. Fubini's conclusions about

this data and have undertaken two separate programs to determine

the magnitude of atmosphere imposed limitations and the range

of values which we could encounter under various climatological

conditions.

The first of these programs uses' ,with on-board

receivers and a ground based laser. Some equipment problems

plagued earlier efforts with this experiment, but these have

been overcome and good data from four days around

Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, were recently obta . This data

is now being processed and analyzed, and results should be

available in about a month. Additiona4111110ftests are programmed for areas in the states of Washington, Alaska, Michigan,

and Florida to provide data under various climatic conditions.

The program should be completed by fall 1974. 411111.designed

the equipment,

andlgtiy:- is doing the data reduction. We do not believe

that Dr.•ini has ever been briefed on this program.

• The second test program is similar to first, except

thkt the laser .source is mounted' and the

to:

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receivers an the ground. This experiment was designed by'

th

The laser source will be mounted modified

byeSimilar Similar results from t a exper went will

va e t e method of the above described test program.

For this reason, only1111111Min the Arizona area are

programmed during the summer of 1974.

We agree with Dr. Fubini that this is an important question,

but we feel that we have a well-planned test program to obtain

the necessary answers to atmospheric imposed resolution limitations in the near future.

FREE RADICAL FILM

The Staff has just concluded an intensive review of the

status and prognosis of this development program. Since the

program's inception nearly five years ago, the NRP has conducted

a careful, systematic development program with

We have roughly doubled fun

in FY-74. Each step of the

program has been designed to answer these basic questions: Can

we sake a free radical material which (a) has the physical

properties which we desire for satellite use, (b) remains

stable for the required period of time, and (c) is manufacturable. We have high Confidence that we have affirmative answers

to the first two questions and have high confidence that we

will have the answer to the third question by the end of the

present contract' This contract calls for

ree ra cal film to be provided by

contractor or est purposes. These will be roduced

by a small laboratory coating machine built by

Consistent high quality material of the desired properties

from this machine will indicate and provide guidance for

manufacturability.

Assuming the success of producing the1011111plab

coatings, our thinking is that the FY-75 program uld

concentrate on three areas:

a. Continued work on improving the properties of

the material.

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SI=

Detailed analysis and testing of material.

Initiating pilot production of Free Radical Film.

We believe that a above should continue to be done at

The expertise that has been built

e found elsewhere, and•to bring another

firm up to speed would be a long and expensive proposition.

We do not believe that such an effort would accelerate the

program nor have a good probability of increasing the chances

of the program's success. Unless problems develop at

we do not feel that it is necessary to undertake a pa!!!!!!11" development program at this time.

We do concur, however, that an independent entity should

be retained to do evaluation and testing of the free radical

material. This firm would validate the test results obtained

by and, in addition, perform detailed measurements

of p o Ohic parameters beyond the measurin g

capabilities airlift. We have employe

toperform this unction-in the past. Whether we employ

r another contractor. to perform this evaluation Igor s not yet been decided.

The third goal of the FY-75 program, as we now see it,

is to undertake production of free radical film to obtain

sufficient quantity for full-scale aircraft and on orbit

testing of the material. We have been considering several

alternatives to do this. Among these are:

A joint venture between44110116nd one of

several firms with film production expert se. These discussions

are going on at this time. While results to date have not been

encouraging, the possibility of arriving at a mutually satisfactory arrangement is not out of the question.

Modification of existing

to permit pilot production o mater

e t is interim step would not prow scale producx

tion facility, it would provide a sufficient quantity for NRP

test purposes. Further, a demonstrated success in pilot

production would most certainly enhance the attractiveness of

a joint venture with the other film producers as outlined above.

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c. Establishing a government-owned facility for

manufacturing the material. Clearly this is the most expensive alternative and would only be done as the last resort.

In summary, we believe that we have an adequate test

program underway to determine atmospheric resolution limitation

under various climate conditions from which we will begin

receiving data in a short time. We Will validate these results

with a separate experiment next summer. We agree that the

Free Radical Film program has great potential and far-reaching

implications for the NRP. We agree that an independent. entity

must be engaged to evaluate the material's properties and plan

to do this in our FY-75 ro ram. Because of the unique

expertise available a and because the program is

going well there at th s t , ;re do not believe it is necessary

to begin a parallel development program elseihere. We feel the

first priority should be to attain a capability to produce the

material in sufficient quantity for exhaustive test. We would

be happy to brief Dr. Fubini in greater detail on these subjects

at your request.

LAWRENCE E. PENCE

Major, USAF

•

viwartwararaike

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OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR

19)-NATIONALRECONNAISSANCEOFFICE

WASHINGTON. D.C.

January 10, 1974

MEMORANDUM FOR DIRECTOR, DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE AGENCY

SUBJECT: Concerns of the SAC Imagery Panel

•••• •••n•• ..•••••

This ii in response to your November 12, 1973 memorandum

expressing the concerns of the DIA/SAC Imaging Panel regarding

our knowledge of resolution limitations imposed by the atmosphere, and the plans for development of free radical film.

We agree with Dr. Fubini that results of earlier atmospheric limitation tests were inconclusive. Our questions

concerning•the validity of these tests have prompted the NRO

to undertake additional testing as a part of the FY-73 and 74

NRP ROD programs. Data from the first of these tests have

just become available and look encouraging. Details are

included in the attached memorandum. Since Dr. Fubini had

not received a detailed description of the tests, we provided

him with such a briefing on January 7, 1974.

Regarding free radical film h ve made outstanding

progress during the last year. the

developer of this material, is per orming we and we have

every indication that they will meet their contract goals.

We plan to engage an independent firm to evaluate the

performance of the material and its photographic properties.

The primary problem which we see for the FY-74 program is

pilot production, and we are currently considering several

options to achieve this capability. These optiont are

discussed in detail in the attached memorandum. While we are

far from having all the problems solved, the material shows

great promise, and we are confident that we should move to a

pilot production and testing phase.

1111F PAGE__of a Ic.T[ P
The attached memorandum discusses both the resolution

tests and free radical programs in detail. If you have

further questions, we would be pleased to brief you at your

convenience.

Attachment

NRO Staff Memo

dtd 13 Dec 73

cc: ASD(I)

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