Abstract
The Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL) is a micro-focus X-ray fluorescence spectrometer that is mounted on the robotic arm of NASA’s Perseverance rover. PIXL scans target surfaces with high spacial resolution yielding detailed analyses of rock or soil elemental chemistry. The elemental maps are produced by a narrow 120 μm X-ray beam. These scans are correlated to images captured by PIXL’s Micro Context Camera (MCC) which tie the X-ray measurements to the visual texture and structure of the sample, revealing the distribution and variations of chemical elements within the rock. The PIXL subsystem that determines this correspondence is the Optical Fiducial System (OFS), which is comprised of the MCC, two Structured Light Illuminators (SLI) and a Floodlight Illuminator (FLI). This paper discusses the pre-flight calibration of the OFS, including optical calibration of the MCC, radiometric calibration of the floodlight system and geometric calibration of the structured light illumination beam together with an overall geometric calibration of the OFS and the X-ray beam. Finally, results from the performance verification are presented.
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Acknowledgements
The authors greatly appreciate all the PIXL team members contributing with essential support throughout the work in delivering a fully functioning and well performing instrument to Mars. The authors greatly appreciate the independent reviewers for contributing with valuable comments increasing the quality of this manuscript.
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This research was carried out at the Technical University of Denmark and at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (80NM0018D0004).
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Note by the Editor: This is a Special Communication, linked to the Topical Collection on the Mars 2020 mission published in Space Science Reviews. In addition to invited review papers and topical collections, Space Science Reviews publishes unsolicited Special Communications. These are papers linked to an earlier topical volume/collection, report-type papers, or timely papers dealing with a strong space-science-technology combination (such papers summarize the science and technology of an instrument or mission in one paper).
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Klevang, D.A., Liebe, C.C., Henneke, J. et al. Pre-flight Geometric and Optical Calibration of the Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL). Space Sci Rev 219, 11 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-023-00955-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-023-00955-1