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Field deployment of a portable X-ray diffraction/X-ray flourescence instrument on Mars analog terrain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2012

P. Sarrazin*
Affiliation:
inXitu, P.O. Box 730, Mountain View, California 94042
D. Blake
Affiliation:
NASA Ames Research Center, MS 239-4, Moffett Field, California 94035
S. Feldman
Affiliation:
NASA Ames Research Center, MS 239-4, Moffett Field, California 94035
S. Chipera
Affiliation:
Los Alamos National Laboratory, MS D469, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545
D. Vaniman
Affiliation:
Los Alamos National Laboratory, MS D469, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545
D. Bish
Affiliation:
Indiana University, 1001 E 10th Street, Bloomington, Indiana 47405
*
a)Electronic mail: psarrazin@inxitu.com

Abstract

CheMin is a miniature X-ray diffraction/X-ray fluorescence instrument that is included in the payload of the Mars 2009 Mars Science Laboratory mission. A portable CheMin prototype was built to test the capability of the instrument for remote in situ mineralogical characterization of geological materials. The instrument was successfully deployed at a variety of Mars analog sites in Death Valley, CA, in May 2004.

Type
XRD Instrumentation and Techniques
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2005

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