Thomas Pesquet with Lumina

ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet with the Lumina experiment during his Alpha mission on the International Space Station, 25 August 2021.

Thomas commented on this picture: "Another black box experiment, called Lumina. Inside are fibre optic cables, not to bring us ultra-fast internet (it is already rather good to be honest, given that we’re in space!) but to test new technology to monitor radiation. This CNES experiment in collaboration with the radiation experts CERN, iXBlue and LabHC, will see if fibre optic cables are a viable technology to monitor the ionising radiation we receive inside the Space Station. Inside the box are kms of cables, that are both light-weight and take up little space, two premiums for spaceflight. "

The Lumina experiment will demonstrate the reliability of a fibre-optic dosimeter in measuring radiation ionising inside the International Space Station. The Lumina technology demonstration features two spools of kilometre-long fibres that will  improve our understanding of how fibre optic cables cope with long-duration spaceflight. This knowledge is essential as we prepare to protect astronauts and hardware on longer missions farther from Earth.