The Start-Planet Activity Research CubeSat (SPARCS) is a NASA-funded mission led by Arizona State University, devoted to characterizing the UV emission of low-mass stars. During its nominal one-year mission, SPARCS will observe close to 20 low-mass stars, with the goal of understanding their short and long-term UV variability. SPARCS will be ready for launch in 2025. SPARCS’ payload is a 9-cm telescope paired with two delta-doped charge-coupled devices (CCDs). The data calibration converts the raw instrument counts into an average flux within the two ultraviolet bands (153 - 171 nm, 258 - 308 nm). While the system is only weakly sensitive in the infrared, the target stars are very bright at long wavelengths. This requires careful correction of the data for out-of-band emission. The system is being fully characterized on the ground to provide supporting calibration data. The calibration uses observations of very stable white dwarfs to achieve the 10% photometric accuracy requirement in both bands.
We discuss the final assembly, integration, and testing of the Star-Planet Activity Research CubeSat. SPARCS is a 6U CubeSat mission designed to monitor the dual-channel, far-UV (153-176 nm) and near-UV (258-308 nm) photometric activity of nearby low mass stars to advance our understanding of their evolution, activity, and the habitability of surrounding exoplanets. This paper details the assembly of the SPARCS instrument and the testing process to characterize and validate the performance of the payload prior to spacecraft integration. To test SPARCS, we have established a customized CubeSat AIT laboratory and thermal vacuum chamber at ASU equipped to handle CubeSats requiring meticulous contamination control for work in the FUV. After a brief overview of these facilities and the testing plan, we will detail the methods and data used to verify the performance of SPARCS and generate calibration products to reduce raw flight data to high-quality science products. The result will be the delivery of the first highly sensitive FUV astrophysics CubeSat which will inform exoplanet environments and future observations of these systems by facilities like the Habitable Worlds Observatory.
The Star-Planet Activity Research CubeSat (SPARCS) is 6U CubeSat whose mission will be to observe low-mass stars in two ultraviolet (UV) bands. SPARCS will provide time-dependent spectral slope, intensity, and evolution of stellar radiation with the goal of understanding the short- and long-term variability of these targets.
Here we summarize the performance of SPARCam, the science camera for SPARCS. SPARCam is a two-detector camera system allowing independent commanding of two delta-doped, UV CCD47-20 detectors, separately optimized for the SPARCS near UV (NUV) and far UV (FUV) bands. The manuscript includes an overview of the UV detectors optimization and performance as well as a brief description of the camera electronics.
SPARCam was developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and delivered to Arizona State University in October 2023.
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