The Adaptive Optics Revolution: A History

11: 3.67-Meter Military Telescope Complex: Maui, Hawaii

277 E L E V E N 3.67-Meter Military Telescope Complex Maui, Hawaii The 3.5-meter (11.5-foot) telescope developed for SOR was the Department of Defense’s largest and most advanced operational telescope for most of the 1990s. But toward the end of the decade, the Starfire telescope would be surpassed in size by the slightly larger AEOS telescope installed on the summit of Haleakala in July 1997; it became fully operational in 2000. The new Maui telescope, with its primary mirror diameter measuring at 3.67 meters (12.04 feet), barely exceeded the diameter of the 3.5-meter telescope at SOR. The telescopes were closely connected, as AEOS was built on the basic design philosophy and incorporated lessons learned from the 3.5-meter telescope. Management and operation of the two telescopes were the responsibility of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Directed Energy (DE) Directorate, located at Kirtland. Although the Air Force now had two comparable-sized, 3-meterclass telescopes, the missions of the two telescopes are fundamentally different . The SOR telescope is used primarily as a sophisticated scientific research instrument to advance the state of the art for imaging of space objects, adaptive optics, and laser beam control and propagation. The | Eleven 278 Maui telescope has a dual responsibility. Besides being used for research, it provides real-time imaging support to operational units, namely U.S. Space Command (USSPACECOM), headquartered at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado, and the Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) established on 1 September 1982 and also located at Peterson. USSPACECOM, established on 23 September 1985, disbanded on 1 October 2002. Its responsibilities transferred to the newly created U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) at Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska. USSTRATCOM oversees a global network of satellite command and control functions. Hence, even though the SOR and Maui telescopes are similar in some cases, their operations and workloads are not the same. In short, SOR is a research site, while Maui’s primary role is to support day-to-day Air Force space object identification missions. Originally, justification for that mission was precisely spelled out in USSPACECOM’s Space Object Identification Statement of Need, 14–89.1 AEOS detects, tracks, identifies, and images artificial objects in space, such as satellites and missiles. Today, this is the essence of the Air Force’s space situational awareness mission. AEOS is a contributing sensor supportingthemilitary ’sspacesurveillancenetworkandintelligence-gathering customers, who are involved in satellite mission payload assessment. AFSPC and USSTRATCOM want to know the exact location of satellites, space debris, and other objects at any time. The Air Force also wants to be able to predict where each satellite will be located at a specific time in the future and the mission of those satellites.2 USSTRATCOM and a number of U.S. intelligence agencies, including the National Air and Space Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, use Maui space surveillance data to collect and assess other information about satellites and missiles—such as friend or foe, operational status, spectrum, stability, and intent. For example, an image of a satellite showing no solar panels might suggest the satellite is nuclearpowered . The Directed Energy detachment responsible for managing the Maui telescope is the only unit within the Air Force Research Laboratory assigned a continuing operational mission.3 The Maui telescope is a major contributor to the space surveillance network, which has 19 observation sites (radars and optical telescopes) worldwide that keep track of satellites, missiles, and space debris. AMOS 3.67-Meter Military Telescope Complex 279 originally opened in August 1966 as the Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Midcourse Optical Observatory Station, to collect optical measurementsonICBMslaunchedfromVandenbergAirForceBase ,California, to the Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific. Another project, Maui’s Ground-Based Electro-Optical Deep Surveillance System (GEODSS), can look 3,000 to 23,000 miles into space to observe communications, weather, and surveillance satellites that move in geosynchronous orbit (at the same speed as the Earth’s rotation). One of the functions of satellites in geosynchronous orbit is early detection of missile and space launches for the Air Force Defense Support Program.4 Before (and even after) electro-optical systems became available, the Air Force relied on radar as the primary method of space surveillance . Unlike optical telescopes, radar can penetrate clouds and operate during poor weather. But it cannot provide the sharpness and detail of a telescope...