Elpasolite Planetary Ice and Composition Spectrometer (EPICS): A Low-Resource Combined Gamma-Ray and Neutron Spectrometer for Planetary Science

Abstract: Neutron and gamma-ray spectroscopy (NGRS) is a well established technique for studying the geochemical composition and volatile abundance relevant to planetary structure and evolution of planetary bodies. Previous NGRS instruments have used separate gamma-ray and neutron spectrometers. The Elpasolite Planetary Ice and Composition Spectrometer (EPICS) instrument is an innovative and fully integrated NGRS with low resource requirements. EPICS utilizes elpasolite scintillator read out by silicon photomultipliers to combine the gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer into a single instrument, leading to a significant reduction in instrument size, weight, and power. An overview and motivation for the EPICS instrument, current status of the EPICS development, and a discussion of the expected sensitivity and performance are presented.