Modeling the Expected Performance of the REgolith X-ray Imaging Spectrometer (REXIS)

التفاصيل البيبلوغرافية
العنوان: Modeling the Expected Performance of the REgolith X-ray Imaging Spectrometer (REXIS)
المؤلفون: Inamdar, Niraj K., Binzel, Richard P., Hong, Jae Sub, Allen, Branden, Grindlay, Jonathan, Masterson, Rebecca A.
المصدر: Proceedings of SPIE Vol. 9222, 922207 (2014)
سنة النشر: 2014
المجموعة: Astrophysics
مصطلحات موضوعية: Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
الوصف: OSIRIS-REx is the third spacecraft in the NASA New Frontiers Program and is planned for launch in 2016. OSIRIS-REx will orbit the near-Earth asteroid (101955) Bennu, characterize it, and return a sample of the asteroid's regolith back to Earth. The Regolith X-ray Imaging Spectrometer (REXIS) is an instrument on OSIRIS-REx designed and built by students at MIT and Harvard. The purpose of REXIS is to collect and image sun-induced fluorescent X-rays emitted by Bennu, thereby providing spectroscopic information related to the elemental makeup of the asteroid regolith and the distribution of features over its surface. Telescopic reflectance spectra suggest a CI or CM chondrite analog meteorite class for Bennu, where this primitive nature strongly motivates its study. A number of factors, however, will influence the generation, measurement, and interpretation of the X-ray spectra measured by REXIS. These include: the compositional nature and heterogeneity of Bennu, the time-variable Solar state, X-ray detector characteristics, and geometric parameters for the observations. In this paper, we will explore how these variables influence the precision to which REXIS can measure Bennu's surface composition. By modeling the aforementioned factors, we place bounds on the expected performance of REXIS and its ability to ultimately place Bennu in an analog meteorite class.
Comment: Presented at the SPIE Optics + Photonics Conference, 18 August 2014, San Diego, CA
نوع الوثيقة: Working Paper
DOI: 10.1117/12.2062202
URL الوصول: http://arxiv.org/abs/1410.3051
رقم الأكسشن: edsarx.1410.3051
قاعدة البيانات: arXiv