Engineering design of the Regolith X-ray Imaging Spectrometer (REXIS) instrument: an OSIRIS-REx student collaboration

Michael Jones; Mark Chodas; Matthew J. Smith; Rebecca A. Masterson

doi:10.1117/12.2056903

24 July 2014 Engineering design of the Regolith X-ray Imaging Spectrometer (REXIS) instrument: an OSIRIS-REx student collaboration

Michael Jones, Mark Chodas, Matthew J. Smith, Rebecca A. Masterson

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 9144, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2014: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray; 914453 (2014) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2056903
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2014, Montréal, Quebec, Canada

Abstract

OSIRIS-REx is a NASA New Frontiers mission scheduled for launch in 2016 that will travel to the asteroid Bennu and return a pristine sample of the asteroid to Earth. The REgolith X-ray Imaging Spectrometer (REXIS) is a student collaboration instrument on-board the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. REXIS is a NASA risk Class D instrument, and its design and development is largely student led. The engineering team consists of MIT graduate and undergraduate students and staff at the MIT Space Systems Laboratory. The primary goal of REXIS is the education of science and engineering students through participation in the development of light hardware. In light, REXIS will contribute to the mission by providing an elemental abundance map of the asteroid and by characterizing Bennu among the known meteorite groups. REXIS is sensitive to X-rays between 0.5 and 7 keV, and uses coded aperture imaging to map the distribution of iron with 50 m spatial resolution. This paper describes the science goals, concept of operations, and overall engineering design of the REXIS instrument. Each subsystem of the instrument is addressed with a high-level description of the design. Critical design elements such as the Thermal Isolation Layer (TIL), radiation cover, coded-aperture mask, and Detector Assembly Mount (DAM) are discussed in further detail.

Citation Download Citation

Michael Jones, Mark Chodas, Matthew J. Smith, and Rebecca A. Masterson "Engineering design of the Regolith X-ray Imaging Spectrometer (REXIS) instrument: an OSIRIS-REx student collaboration", Proc. SPIE 9144, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2014: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray, 914453 (24 July 2014); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2056903

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