A report on the First Technology Demonstration mission of the Little UV Camera (LUVCam1)
Here we report on the status of the first on-orbit technology demonstration of the Little UV Camera (LUVCam1). LUVCam1 is a 0.4U payload aboard the 2U cubesat GRBBeta that was launched in July 2024. The primary objective of the mission was to qualify the GSENSE4040 CMOS sensor and its readout electronics in preparation for the Quick UltraVIolet Kilonova Surveyor (QUVIK; Werner et al. \cite{Werner22, Werner24}) satellite. LUVCam will serve as the primary scientific camera for this mission. We report on the performance of the GSENSE4040FSI sensor used on LUVCam1, beginning with its in-lab characterization followed by an assessment of its on-orbit performance using astronomical observations made by LUVCam1. The camera remains operational two years later and has taken pictures of the Moon and stars that we show here. Through LUVCam1, we demonstrated an approach leveraging new-space to qualify the latest COTS CMOS sensors for astronomy missions.