Space has always been a child's dream. Our silent encapsulator, seemingly close but ultimately beyond reach, both physically and metaphysically. Still, space and the stars have occupied the minds of people for thousands of years and, surprisingly, it has also served to orient and ground us in our reality. After all, space is, explicitly, that which we are not. Like most things, it was beyond calculation, expectation, and our wildest dreams that one of our devices would have the opportunity to be taken on a payload up to the ISS: but it happened! While details are sparse, Byonoy's Absorbance 96 was sent up to space on Nasa's SpaceX Crew-12 voyage on February 13th, 2026, and is currently on board the ISS.
What happens to humans in space, and can we measure it in space?
We all know (now) that living in microgravity has profound effects on the human body. This includes severe bone and muscle atrophy, amongst other neuromuscular and even cognitive effects that accumulate during time away from earth. Long turnaround times on samples mean that a barrier in space and time turns into real consequences for decisions that need to be made which may have an impact on the lives of the people at the ISS. Byonoy's reader, thanks to its ultra-compact footprint, light weight, and robust design, might play a vital role in simplifying these processes and lowering the cost of doing so.
"The ISS! It's completely mind-blowing for us and the entire team. We all think about it regularly as Absorbance 96 circles the earth."
Byonoy's journey to space doesn't stop there. Due to their unique characteristics (as mentioned above), interest was sparked in taking one of our luminescence readers along on another mission: Haven-1 from Vast.
Making devices compact, user-friendly, affordable, and robust, has had far reaching consequences that we could never have predicted. We're along for the ride and look forward to supporting ongoing and future missions. Updates to come...
(Night sky photo credit to Francesco Ungaro on Pexels)
