Hardening a notional missile warning satellite telescope against jamming and damage by ground, airborne, and space-based lasers

TLDR: In this article, the authors proposed an unhardened satellite telescope design based on a model of a missile warning satellite telescope developed by the American Physical Society Study Group on Boost-Phase Intercept Systems for National Missile Defense.

Abstract: Methods are proposed for hardening a missile warning satellite against jamming and damage from unlimited running time 1-MW airborne, 1-MJ ground-based, and space-based lasers. The unhardened telescope design is based on a model of a missile warning satellite telescope developed by the American Physical Society Study Group on Boost-Phase Intercept Systems for National Missile Defense. The APS telescope can step-stare or linearly scan. In response to an attack, laser warning devices can close a shutter at the first focal surface. Filter wheels in a collimated section of the optical path, insert filters to protect focal plane arrays and readout ICs from jamming and damage. Neutral density filters are inserted to assess threats. The shutter is reopened. The reduced laser intensity in the collimated section protects the filters. The field of view (FOV) is reduced with a field stop wheel, with differently sized apertures, to allow the system to step-stare between multiple jammers in the normal FOV. A cryogenic gas cools fore-optics heated by lasers or by X-rays from nuclear bursts.