The second Little UV Camera (LUVCam2) mission

The second Little UltraViolet Camera (LUVCam2) is an 80mm-diameter dual UV-optical space telescope designed to observe UV flares around low-mass stars. It is planned to fly as a ~1.4U payload aboard the 3U CubeSat BRNOsat in late 2027. The paper presents the mission's concept of operations along with its full system architecture, optomechanical design, and electrical design.

LUVCam2 is the second technology demonstration for the LUVCam electronics board, following LUVCam1, which launched in July 2024 and is still operating in low-Earth orbit. The main upgrade for LUVCam2 is the use of a backside-illuminated GSENSE4040BSI CMOS sensor, which promises a significant improvement to UV quantum efficiency compared with the frontside-illuminated model used in LUVCam1.

Additional upgrades include incorporating the LUVCam on-board computer onto the readout electronics, adding an integrated 1W heater and thermal control system, and enabling a novel operational capability: on-sensor star-tracking using optical images of background stars.