The Apollo X-ray fluorescence spectrometer

Abstract

The Apollo X-ray fluorescence spectrometer was a part of a geochemical package flown on the Apollo 15 and 16 missions. The device was to map the concentrations of aluminum, magnesium, and silicon in the lunar regolith along the spacecraft ground track. A functional description of the spectrometer is given and the telemetry data format is discussed together with the pulse height analyzer, the pulse shape discriminator, questions of in-flight calibration, and the flight results.