Plans to place data centers in orbit and moon

It sounds like something from a science fiction movie, but Stephen Eisel is confident that one day his company will open the moon data center.

“The way we see is that by putting the space center in space, you really offer unparalleled security,” says Lonestar Data Holdings president.

Last month, Florida -based company claims to have successfully tested A small data center for the size of a hardcover book that climbed the moon’s moon Lander’s moon of the American Space Research Company Intuitive Machines. This, in turn, was fired by an Elon Musk SpaceX rocket.

Data centers are the huge warehouses that computers from computers that store and process data used by websites, companies and governments.

Lonestar says that putting them on the moon will offer customers a safe, reliable processing of data, while taking advantage of unlimited solar energy to supply them.

And while data -based space centers can sound far, it’s an idea that really starts to take off.

Part of the reason is rocket demand and the difficulty of finding the right objects on Earth.

The constantly growing use of artificial intelligence (AI) calculations is a significant increase in the amount of data to be stored and processed worldwide.

As a result, the need for data centers has also increased, with annual search will increase between 19% and 22% By 2030, according to Global Management Consultants McKinsey.

The new facilities appear all the time – but it becomes difficult to find places to place them. Data centers are large and scattered and use huge amounts of power and cooling water.

And more and more people do not want to be built nearby.

Placing data centers in space – either in orbit around Earth or on the moon – the theory goes, means that they cannot cause so much harm. For example, there is more or less unlimited energy than the sun, for example, and there are no neighbors to complain about environmental impact.

Not only that, space data centers could specialize in spacecraft services and other space facilities, with space data from space being transferred faster than from Earth.

Last summer, a feasibility study funded by the European Commission in orbital data centers published its results.

ASCEND report performed by Thales Alenia Space – a joint venture between French and Italian aerospace groups Thales and Leonardo – publishes its results.

He determined that the placement of data centers in space “Can transform the European digital landscape”, And be “more environmentally friendly”.

Thales Alenia Space envisages the construction of a constellation of 13 satellites, measuring combined 200m to 80m, and with a total data processing power of about 10 megawatts (MW). This is equivalent to a current medium -sized, land center for data, with about 5000 servers.

Based on technologies that already exist or are under development, satellites will be assembled in orbit.

Damien Dumenzer, architect of the Ascend project at Thales Alenia Space, says that in order for space centers to be more environmentally friendly than existing ground ground, it will be necessary to make the rocket with 10 times less emitting through their life cycles. He says it seems possible.

“But in order to cover the development of the new technology and the growth of production capacity, in order to take advantage of the scale, we need to look at a greater system capacity, about 200mW, which means 200 of our large space infrastructures and 200 launches,” he says.

“The main question is when an adapted starter will be ready. Depending on the investment and the decisions to be taken, this can be done in 2030 or 2035, which means commercial viability before 2037”

Despite this optimism from companies aimed at developing technology, Dr. Domenico Vicinanza, Assistant Professor of Intelligent Systems and Data Science at the University of England, Russian in the UK, says there are many big obstacles before space centers are a viable proposal.

“Even with the contribution and progress of companies like SpaceX, the launch of hardware into orbit remains extremely expensive,” he says. “Every kilogram sent into space costs thousands of dollars.

“Space -based data centers will require not only data equipment but also infrastructure for protection, power and cooling. All of them add weight and complexity.”

The cooling of the equipment will be a special problem, as the space is cold, conventional cooling systems do not work without gravity.

Meanwhile, space time can damage electronics, while the ever -increasing amount of cosmic debris puts physical hardware at risk.

Vicinanza adds: “And the elimination of orbit problems is far from clear.

“Much hardware damage may require an expensive human mission, potentially a stay for weeks or months.”

Still, companies like Lonestar are extremely confident and say they respond to a request. “We wouldn’t do this if our customers did not ask us,” says G -N Scott.

Its next goal is to put a small data center in orbit around the moon in 2027. Meanwhile, other companies are hoping to get there a little faster, such as Washington StarCloud, which has to launch a satellite satellite-based satellite data center and start commercial operations in the mid-2026.

Mr. Idel of Lonestar says space facilities offer more security for governments and business, since their data is not necessary to redirect through ground networks. Instead, the information can be broadcast directly from space to a special ground station.

“It’s like having the vaults in the back of the bank,” he says. “You don’t have to open it every day, but it is there to provide an additional security measure, and the distance from Earth to the moon offers this -it is so much more difficult to hack, the more difficult to access.”

The distance to the moon means that the data takes about a second and a half to reach Earth – it doesn’t matter to some applications, such as long -term data storage and backups.

Meanwhile, says Lonestar founder and CEO Chris Sent, space data centers can help organizations meet regulations on data sovereignty – the need to store data of people in the country of origin.

“According to space law, this field of electronics is literally under the law of the status of licensing or launch – this is an actual embassy in space,” he says.

Lonestar already has arranged customers, including Florida State and the government on Man Island.