SPARCS Payload Assembly, Integration, and Test Update

The Star-Planet Activity Research CubeSat (SPARCS) is a 6U CubeSat under construction that is devoted to the photometric monitoring of M stars in the far-UV (FUV) and near-UV (NUV), to measure the time-dependent spectral slope, intensity and evolution of low-mass star high-energy radiation. We report on the progress made in the assembly, integration and test of the instrument payload at Arizona State University using a custom TVAC chamber and optical stimulus that provides calibration light sources and the custom contamination control environment that the FUV demands. The payload consists of a custom 90mm clear aperture telescope developed by Hexagon/Sigma Space, combined with a dichroic plate to separate the FUV and NUV beams developed by Teledyne Acton and Materion, married with twin focal plane array cameras separately optimized for their band passes as developed by JPL.