Optical sensor with dual-axis gimballed transmitter and staring detector

An optical sensor, comprising:

• a dual-axis gimbal including an outer gimbal and an inner gimbal mounted on the outer gimbal that rotate about outer and inner gimbal axes, respectively, to point an optical axis over a transmit field-of-regard (FOR) of at least 5×5 degrees;
• an off-gimbal laser configured to emit a laser beam of at most 10 Watts of output power;
• in a narrowband about a specified wavelength;
• a free-space transmit-path optical assembly including coupling optics that couple the laser beam into the free-space transmit-path optical assembly, gimbal optics that couple the laser beam across the outer and inner gimbal axes to a telescope mounted on the inner gimbal to transmit the laser beam along the optical axis in a field-of-view (FOV) of at most 0.1×0.1 degrees through an on-gimbal transmit aperture;
• an off-gimbal staring detector that detects light in a spectral band that does not overlap the laser beam's narrow band about the specified wavelength;
• a fixed off-gimbal receive aperture that receives light within a fixed receive FOR of at least 5×5 degrees that overlaps the transmit FOR;
• and
• a receive-path optical assembly that couples light from the off-gimbal receive aperture to the off-gimbal staring detector.

A self-contained optical sensor module, said comprising:

• a cylindrical volume less than 12″ in diameter and 18″ length,
• a dual-axis gimbal including an outer gimbal and an inner gimbal mounted on the outer gimbal that rotate about outer and inner gimbal axes, respectively, to point an optical axis over a transmit field-of-regard (FOR) of at least 5×5 degrees;
• an off-gimbal laser of at most 10 Watts of power configured to emit a laser beam into free-space;
• a free-space transmit-path optical assembly including coupling optics that couple the laser beam into the free-space transmit-path optical assembly, gimbal optics that couple the laser beam across the outer and inner gimbal axes to a telescope mounted on the inner gimbal to transmit the laser beam along the optical axis in a field-of-view (FOV) of at most 0.1×0.1 degrees through an on-gimbal transmit aperture;
• an off-gimbal staring detector;
• a fixed off-gimbal receive aperture that receives light within a fixed receive FOR of at least 5×5 degrees that overlaps the transmit FOR;
• a receive-path optical assembly that couples light from the off-gimbal receive aperture to the off-gimbal staring detector;
• and
• an interface for coupling to a sensor mounting platform.