Grande, and 29 co-authors, reported in 2009 about the Chandrayaan-1 X-ray Spectrometer (C1XS), which is a compact X-ray spectrometer of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Chandrayaan-1 lunar mission. It exploits heritage from the D-CIXS instrument on ESA’s SMART-1 mission. As a result of detailed developments to all aspects of the design, its performance as measured in the laboratory greatly surpasses that of D-CIXS.
In comparison with SMART-1, Chandrayaan-1 is a science-oriented rather than a technology mission, leading to far more favorable conditions for science measurements. C1XS is designed to measure absolute and relative abundances of major rock-forming elements (principally Mg, Al, Si, Ca and Fe) in the lunar crust with spatial resolution p25 FWHM km, and to achieve relative elemental abundances of better than 10%.
The authors concluded that the C1XS instrument is optimized to perform X-ray spectroscopy in the framework provided by the ISRO Chandrayaan-1 mission to the Moon. This is highly suitable for producing high-quality data on lunar composition derived from Lunar X-ray fluorescence spectra, taken in the approach to Solar maximum.
The instrument represents a considerable refinement on the original D-CIXS instrument on SMART-1. It is expected to provide data of the spatial and the spectral resolution required to produce significant progress in lunar science.
The probe failed early becasue of an especially quiet Sun, which allowed an increase in deep space gamma rays that damaged the probe in orbit. But the Chandrayaan2 orbiter carries an x-ray fluorescence experiment named CLASS that is designed based on results from its predecessor C1XS flown on Chandrayaan-1. In a 2013 paper by Narendranath, and 6 co-authors, they indicated that discuss the new aspects of lunar science that can be potentially achieved with CLASS, which is expected to provide global maps of major elements from Na to Fe at resolutions of a few tens of kilometers. Together with mineralogical data this would provide a comprehensive picture of lunar surface chemistry.
They used the results from C1XS experiment flown on Chandrayaan-1 to refine the design as well as analysis methods for CLASS. They reported on the
particle induced x-ray emission from lunar surface observed with C1XS and emphasize on the possibility of combined particle measurements in order to
use PIXE data along with solar induced XRF. CLASS will have a particle detector as a complimentary experiment in order to achieve the goal of mapping lunar chemistry using PIXE.
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