Zero power 244-Cm Sources for Spacecraft Instruments

We propose to develop “zero-power” Curium-244 (244-Cm) radioisotope sources for Particle Induced X-ray Emission - X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometers (PIXE-XRF) (also called Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometers (APXS)). These sources will be used in two PIXE-XRF instruments being developed by our team: LunaPIX is an arm-deployed instrument that provides quantitative PIXE-XRF measurements of ~2 cm diameter areas of surface regolith (APXS instruments with these characteristics are identified in the 2022 Planetary Science & Astrobiology Decadal Survey as payload elements in three missions to the Earth’s moon and one mission to Mars). MapX is a first-of-its-kind arm-deployed instrument that provides 2 x 2 cm, 100 µm lateral spatial resolution elemental images and quantifiable PIXE-XRF spectra from Regions of Interest (ROI) having common compositions. Our simulations of alpha-particle and gamma-ray fluorescence demonstrate that the radioisotope 244-Cm is unequaled in its ability to fluoresce the biogenic elements including C (detectable on airless bodies), and highly capable in its ability to fluoresce the elements Na-Br. Radioisotope X-ray sources have many advantages over electrical X-ray sources in that their use eliminates the mass, power and complexity/risk of High Voltage Power Supplies (HVPS) and X-ray Tubes. Thus, the development of 244-Cm sources will establish a US capability to build relatively simple, compact and rugged elemental analysis instruments suitable for small rovers and landers. In this PICASSO effort, 244-Cm will be procured from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and purified and developed into sealed spaceflight qualifiable sources by Co-I Roger Henderson at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). We will investigate and evaluate thin metal coatings for eliminating or substantially reducing source self-transfer, a process that results in radioisotope contamination of analyzed samples. These coatings must be thick enough to eliminate source self-transfer yet thin enough to allow transmission of a sufficient flux of alpha-particles for low-Z sample fluorescence. Most importantly, for lunar missions such as Endurance-A in which astronauts retrieve samples analyzed by PIXE-XRF, there must be no radioisotope contamination of returned samples. The sources will be tested with metal foil covers for both alpha-particle fluorescence and source self-transfer, then installed and evaluated in a LunaPIX prototype as well as MapX-IIa, an existing TRL-5 deliverable from our current MatISSE project. Once 244-Cm sources are installed, we will evaluate the instruments’ ability to quantify (and image in the case of MapX) the biogenic elements C, O, N, P, S as well as those elements Na and above in the periodic table useful for identifying geologic context and habitability. With the single exception of the PIXL instrument on the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover, all XRF data since Viking have been collected by non-NASA instruments (the APXS instruments on the Pathfinder (1997), MER A&B (2003), MSL (2012), Chang’e-3 (2014) and Chandrayan (2019) missions). It is important to note that the 244-Cm sources used in all previous APXS instruments were procured from Russia and are no longer available to western countries. Upon completion of this PICASSO effort, the 244-Cm sources developed at LLNL will have increased in technology readiness level from TRL-2 to TRL-5 and will be available for use in PIXE-XRF instruments such as LunaPIX and MapX. The development of a U.S. capability to fabricate 244-Cm sources will for the first time enable NASA scientists and technologists to design, build and safely fly 244-Cm-based X-ray detection instruments.

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