Year 2015 was proclaimed as the International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies (IYL 2015). Light plays a vital role in our daily lives and is an imperative cross-cutting discipline of science in the 21st century. It has revolutionized medicine, opened up international communication via the Internet, and continues to be central to linking cultural, economic and political aspects of the global society.
In this contest the LNF Seminars Committee organizes a Mini-Workshop on the afternoon of May 12 in which, after a general introductory talk on the importance and motivation of this celebration, the main focus will be given to the major space applications of light,namely laser communications developed by the European Space Agency and laser tracking of special satellites used to define the center of mass of the Earth (the so-called ‘geocenter’).