REXIS

OSIRIS-REx (Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer) will be the third spacecraft launched as part of NASA’s New Frontiers program. As part of the New Frontiers mission to research the solar system, OSIRIS-REx will characterize and return to Earth a sample of the near-Earth carbonaceous chondrite asteroid 1999 RQ36. The Regolith X-ray Imaging Spectrometer (REXIS) is the tool for conducting the student collaboration experiment (SCE) on the OSIRIS-REx 1999 RQ36 sample return mission. REXIS provides a valuable scientific enhancement to the OSIRIS-REx mission by obtaining an X-ray (0.3-7.5 keV) global map of the elemental abundance of 1999 RQ36. This global X-ray map will provide complementary understanding of the globally representative returned sample, thus providing a greater understanding of the composition of 1999 RQ36.