A lightweight, compact image projection system, especially for mounting in a housing having a light-transmissive window, is operative for causing selected pixels in a raster pattern to be illuminated to produce an image of high resolution of VGA quality or higher in color. A shock-resistant arrangement protects at least one of the system components, for example, a green laser module with its associated thermo-electric cooler from shock damage during a drop event without sacrificing the capability of aggressively removing waste heat generated by such system components.