Fabrication and testing of high fill-factor solar panels for SPRITE CubeSat

Abstract

SPRITE is a NASA far-UV telescope and spectrograph being designed and assembled at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP). SPRITE’s mission is UV astrophysics in the 1000 - 1750 Angstroms spectral regime. SPRITE will observe low-redshift galaxies, as well as supernova remnants in the Milky Way. SPRITE’s complex science payload is extremely constrained by the volume allocation of the 12U CubeSat form factor. Our solution to deal with SPRITE's volume constraints, is to fabricate solar panels with a high fill factor. With only three deployable single-hinge panels and one body-mounted panel, SPRITE is able to generate 8.5 to 9.7 Watts of power when fully illuminated, using 45 Azur Space AG30A solar cell assemblies. SPRITE is currently finishing the integration and testing phase of its program, with a launch manifested for August 2024.