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C1XS is a Compact Imaging X-ray Spectrometer selected
for part of the payload for the Indian Space Research Organisation
(ISRO) Chandrayaan-1
mission to the Moon. It is a sophisticated miniaturisation of an
X-ray Spectrometer that employs radical new technology to greatly
reduce the mass and volume of the instrument.
The C1XS X-ray spectrometer
is currently being constructed at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory,
UK, in collaboration with colleagues at ISRO.
The instrument is a technology development of the D-C1XS
instrument which successfully conducted science operations at the
Moon aboard ESA's SMART-1
mission between 2003 to 2006. The technology centers around a purpose-designed
matrix of Swept Charge Device (SCD) X-ray sensors that are mounted
behind low profile gold/copper collimators and aluminium thin film
filters. The system has the virtue of providing superior X-ray detection,
spectroscopic and spatial measurement capabilities |