Elemental and Chemical State Analysis, XPS, for In-Situ Materials Analysis on Mars, Phase II

The objective in this project is the development of a monochromatic x-ray source for a small x-ray Photoelectron Spectrometer (XPS) suitable for NASA missions. This instrument will allow in situ elemental and chemical state measurements in off-earth NASA missions. The need for these measurements is for understanding resource availability, toxicity, and chemical issues like oxidants on Mars. The small XPS developed in a previous SBIR, NNC04CA20C, has a mass of 15 Kg and will reduce to 7 kg as refined for flight. It will operate with about 10 watts. This tool needs a monochromatic x-ray source for the capability to understand the chemistries expected on NASA missions as called out in Future Space Science Enterprise (SSE) missions. In Phase I for this proposal we designed a combination of sources that will accomplish this need. It uses both a monochromatic and a non-monochromatic x-ray source to provide the quality data needed at a data rate suitable for potential missions. It uses low power, has a small mass and has some redundancy to reduce risk. Non-NASA applications will be process monitoring for semiconductor, polymer films and bioprocesses manufacturing. This application will be made available by the small size More »