Design, implementation, and validation of the electronics for the SPRITE CubeSat

Planned to launch in 2022, SPRITE is the first NASA-funded 12U cubesat for astrophysics science. SPRITE is equipped with unique hardware for a cubesat that enables it to simultaneously perform underexplored astrophysical observations and serve as a testbed to evaluate the in-space performance of experimental technologies that are candidates for implementation on future large missions. SPRITE will observe ultraviolet light from low-redshift galaxies and other targets of interest to provide data on emissions from these targets in a bandpass that has not been investigated exhaustively to date. An ultraviolet light photon-counting borosilicate glass microchannel plate detector is one of the experimental components that is unique to SPRITE among cubesats, and it motivates the uncommon requirement for a high voltage power supply on the particularly volume-limited spacecraft platform. This proceedings describes SPRITE's electrical subsystems with a focus on the payload electronics that directly enable its science objectives with particular attention given to the design and planned laboratory experimental validation of the high voltage power supply needed to drive the detector. The planned Time-Tag and Accumulate data acquisition modes and the data products of these routines are also discussed.