Star-Planet Activity Research CubeSat (SPARCS)
The spacecraft, known as the Star-Planet Activity Research CubeSat, or SPARCS, is a new NASA-funded space telescope and will be launched in 2021. It will monitor the flares and sunspots of small stars to assess how habitable the environment is for planets orbiting them.
The heart of the SPARCS spacecraft will be a telescope with a diameter of nine centimetres plus a camera with two ultraviolet-sensitive detectors to be developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
