Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) on-board Chandrayaan-2 rover

Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) payload configuration for Chandrayaan-2 rover has been completed recently and fabrication of mechanical assembly, PCB layout design and fabrication are in progress. Here we present the design and performance evaluation of various subsystems developed for APXS payload. The low energy threshold of <1 keV and the energy resolution of similar to 150 eV at 5.9 keV, for the Silicon Drift Detector (SDD), as measured from the developed APXS electronics is comparable to the standard spectrometers available off-the-shelf. We have also carried out experiments for measuring fluorescent X-ray spectrum from various standard samples from the USGS catalog irradiated by the laboratory X-ray source Am-241 with 1 mCi activity. It is shown that intensities of various characteristic X-ray lines are well correlated with the respective elemental concentrations. (C) 2013 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.