The Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL) is a micro-focus X-ray fluorescence spectrometer mounted on the robotic arm of NASA's Perseverance rover. PIXL will acquire high spatial resolution observations of rock and soil chemistry, rapidly analyzing the elemental chemistry of a target surface. In 10 seconds, PIXL can use its powerful 120 micrometer diameter X-ray beam to analyze a single, sand-sized grain with enough sensitivity to detect major and minor rock-forming elements, as well as many trace elements. Over a period of several hours, PIXL can autonomously scan an area of the rock surface and acquire a hyperspectral map comprised of several thousand individual measured points.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2103.07001,
title = {The PIXL Instrument on the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover},
author = {Abigail C. Allwood and Joel A. Hurowitz and Benton C. Clark and Luca Cinquini and Scott Davidoff and Robert W. Denise and W. Timothy Elam and Marc C. Foote and David T. Flannery and James H. Gerhard and John P. Grotzinger and Christopher M. Heirwegh and Christina Hernandez and Robert P. Hodyss and Michael W. Jones and John Leif Jorgensen and Jesper Henneke and Peter R. Lawson and Yang Liu and Haley MacDonald and Scott M. McLennan and Kelsey R. Moore and Marion Nachon and Peter Nemere and Lauren O'Neil and David A. K. Pedersen and Kimberly P. Sinclair and Michael E. Sondheim and Eugenie Song and Nicholas R. Tallarida and Michael M. Tice and Alan Treiman and Kyle Uckert and Lawrence A. Wade and Jimmie D. Young and Payam Zamani},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2103.07001},
year = {2021}
}
Comments
2 pages, from 52nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2021/pdf/1591.pdf