The REgolith X-Ray Imaging Spectrometer (REXIS) for OSIRIS-REx: identifying regional elemental enrichment on asteroids

Branden Allen; Jonathan Grindlay; Jaesub Hong; Richard P. Binzel; Rebecca Masterson; Niraj K. Inamdar; Mark Chodas; Matthew W. Smith; Marshall W. Bautz; Steven E. Kissel; Joel Villasenor; Miruna Oprescu; Nicholas Induni

doi:10.1117/12.2041715

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27 September 2013 The REgolith X-Ray Imaging Spectrometer (REXIS) for OSIRIS-REx: identifying regional elemental enrichment on asteroids

Branden Allen, Jonathan Grindlay, Jaesub Hong, Richard P. Binzel, Rebecca Masterson, Niraj K. Inamdar, Mark Chodas, Matthew W. Smith, Marshall W. Bautz, Steven E. Kissel, Joel Villasenor, Miruna Oprescu, Nicholas Induni

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Proceedings Volume 8840, Optical Modeling and Performance Predictions VI; 88400M (2013) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2041715
Event: SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications, 2013, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

The OSIRIS-REx Mission was selected under the NASA New Frontiers program and is scheduled for launch in September of 2016 for a rendezvous with, and collection of a sample from the surface of asteroid Bennu in 2019. 101955 Bennu (previously 1999 RQ36) is an Apollo (near-Earth) asteroid originally discovered by the LINEAR project in 1999 which has since been classified as a potentially hazardous near-Earth object. The REgolith X-Ray Imaging Spectrometer (REXIS) was proposed jointly by MIT and Harvard and was subsequently accepted as a student led instrument for the determination of the elemental composition of the asteroid's surface as well as the surface distribution of select elements through solar induced X-ray fluorescence. REXIS consists of a detector plane that contains 4 X-ray CCDs integrated into a wide field coded aperture telescope with a focal length of 20 em for the detection of regions with enhanced abundance in key elements at 50 m scales. Elemental surface distributions of approximately 50-200 m scales can be detected using the instrument as a simple collimator. An overview of the observation strategy of the REXIS instrument and expected performance are presented here.

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Branden Allen, Jonathan Grindlay, Jaesub Hong, Richard P. Binzel, Rebecca Masterson, Niraj K. Inamdar, Mark Chodas, Matthew W. Smith, Marshall W. Bautz, Steven E. Kissel, Joel Villasenor, Miruna Oprescu, and Nicholas Induni "The REgolith X-Ray Imaging Spectrometer (REXIS) for OSIRIS-REx: identifying regional elemental enrichment on asteroids", Proc. SPIE 8840, Optical Modeling and Performance Predictions VI, 88400M (27 September 2013); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2041715

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