The PIXL Instrument on the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover
physics.ins-det
/ Authors
Abigail C. Allwood, Joel A. Hurowitz, Benton C. Clark, Luca Cinquini, Scott Davidoff, Robert W. Denise, W. Timothy Elam, Marc C. Foote, David T. Flannery, James H. Gerhard
and 26 more authors
John P. Grotzinger, Christopher M. Heirwegh, Christina Hernandez, Robert P. Hodyss, Michael W. Jones, John Leif Jorgensen, Jesper Henneke, Peter R. Lawson, Yang Liu, Haley MacDonald, Scott M. McLennan, Kelsey R. Moore, Marion Nachon, Peter Nemere, Lauren O'Neil, David A. K. Pedersen, Kimberly P. Sinclair, Michael E. Sondheim, Eugenie Song, Nicholas R. Tallarida, Michael M. Tice, Alan Treiman
/ Abstract
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.