Sapphire's primary mission is to space-qualify micromachined infrared sensors. The Principal Investigator is Professor Tom Kenny of Stanford Unviersity. These sensors are part of a JPL program to push the development of light-weight, inexpensive sensors for spacecraft. Also on-board are a digital camera and a voice synthesizer. Sapphire's other mission is to train U.S. Naval Academy midshipmen in spacecraft operations. For pre-flight integration and post-launch operations support, SAPPHIRE is managed by Project Aria at Washington University, St. Louis.

The structure consists of four aluminum honeycomb trays, one to a subsystem (from bottom: Power, Communications, CPU, and Payloads), with eight external panels (six sides, top and bottom) upon which the solar cells are mounted. The entire hexagonal cylinder, fully loaded and on the launch interface, weighs 18 kg (40 lbm).

Sapphire, built by Stanford University, carries a couple of experiments and a voice synthesizer microchip designed to convert text messages into a human voice for transmission over amateur radio frequencies.

There are three payloads and one telemetry experiment aboard Sapphire: Tunneling Horizon Detectors - These are a new generation of infrared sensors that detect changes in IR emission. They are micromachined to fit in a chip and operate at room temperature. The THDs will see their first flight aboard Sapphire. 
Digital Camera - A Fotoman Plus, a commercially available black & white camera from Logitech modified for space flight and planned to photograph North America (around 1km resolution). 
Voice Synthesizer - The Digitalker is to provide a payload of interest for the Amateur Radio community, specifically in education.
Telemetry Experiment - A pseudo-payload, designed by students, is to assess how well we can determine our attitude using the solar panels as a differential sun sensor.