The plans to put data centres into orbit and on the moon

This seems to be something from a science fiction film, but Stephen Isel is confident that one day his company will open a data center on the moon.

“The way we see the data center in space,” says the chairman of Lonestar Data Holdings.

Last month, Florida -based firm claimed Successfully tested A Tiny Data Center The size of a hardback book that prevents a ride for the moon on the lunar lander from the US Space Exploration Firm Interactive Machines. This, in turn, was launched by a rocket of Alone Musk’s spacex.

Data centers are huge warehouses which are house stacks of computers storing and processed by websites, companies and governments.

Lonestar says that keeping them on the moon will offer safe, reliable data processing to customers, while unlimited solar energy will be availed to give them strength.

And while the space-based data centers may look far-fetched, this is an idea that is actually starting to stop.

A part of the cause is the difficulty of demanding and finding appropriate sites on Earth.

The ever-expansion use of artificial intelligence (AI) computing has seen a huge increase in the amount of data that needs to be stored and processed worldwide.

As a result, data centers have also been required, with an increase in annual demand, as well as increased Between 19% to 22% By 2030, according to the Global Management Advisor McKinse.

New features are spring at all times – but it is difficult to find places to put them. The data centers are large and spacious, and use large amounts of electricity and water for cooling.

And rapidly locals have not been built nearby.

Keeping data centers in space – either around the Earth, or on the moon – the principle goes away, it means that they cannot do much harm. For example, there is more or less unlimited energy available than the Sun, and there is no neighbor to complain about environmental effects.

Not only this, space-based data centers can specialize in services for spacecraft and other space features, with space-to-space data faster than the ground.

In the last summer, a European Commission-Finance Nedd in feasibility studies published its results.

The ascending report by Thles Ellenia Space – a joint venture between French and Italian aerospace groups Thels and Leonardo published their results.

It was determined that deploying data centers in space “European can change the digital landscape”, And be “more environmentally friendly”.

Thels Ellenia Space envisaged the manufacture of a planetarium of 13 satellites measuring a combined 200 m -by -80 meter, and with a total data processing power of about 10 MW (MW). It is equal to a current medium-sized, ground-based data center, with some 5,000 servers.

Depending on the techniques that are already present or subject to development, satellites will be assembled in the classroom.

The Archand Project Architect of Thels Ellenia Space Demian Dumster says that for space-based data centers to be more environmentally friendly than the existing ground-based people, the rocket launcher will be required to emit 10 times less on their life cycle. He says that this is possible.

“But to cover the ramp-up for the benefit from the scale to cover the development and production capacity of new technology, we have to consider the capacity of a large system, approximately 200mw, which means that our hypotheses are large space infrastructure and 200 launched,” they say.

“The main question is when a customized launcher will be ready. Based on investment and decision making, this can be done for 2030 or 2035, which means commercial feasibility before 2037.”

However, Dr. Dr., Associate Professor of Intelligent Systems and Data Science at the University of Anglia Ruscin in UK. Dominico Wikinza, Dr. Despite this optimism from the firms aimed at the purpose of Dominico Wikinza, it is said that there are many major obstacles before the space-based data centers, a viable offer may be.

“With the contribution and progress of companies like SpaceX, it is extremely expensive to launch hardware in the classroom,” they say. “Each kilogram sent to space costs thousands of dollars.

“Space-based data centers will also require infrastructure not only data equipment, but also to save them, power and cool them. All of which add to weight and complexity.”

Cooling the device will be a special problem, because even if the space is cold, the traditional cooling system does not function without gravity.

Meanwhile, the space season can damage electronics, while space rises physical hardware in the increasing amount of debris.

Dr. Wikinza says: “And the classroom problems are straightforward. Even with robotics and automation, can be repaired from distance, it has limitations.

“A large hardware failure may require an expensive human mission, potentially making downtime stretch for weeks or months.”

Nevertheless, firms like Lonestar are very confident, and say they are responding to demand. “We wouldn’t do this if the customers were not asking us,” says Mr. Scott.

Its next goal is to keep a small data center in the class around the moon in 2027. Meanwhile, other companies are expecting to reach there slightly, such as the Washington State-based Starcloud, which is due to launching a satellite-based data center next month and starting commercial operations in mid-2010.

MR Edel of Lonstar states that space-based facilities provide more protection for governments and businesses as their data is not required to root through terrestrial networks. Instead, the information can be transported directly to a dedicated ground station from space.

“It is like being a volt behind the bank,” they say. “You don’t need to open it every day, but it is to provide an additional measure of safety, and the Moon’s distance from the earth provides it – it is very difficult to hack, very difficult to access.”

The distance of the moon means that the data seems almost and one and a half to reach the ground – it does not matter to some applications, such as long -term data storage and backup.

And in the meantime, Chris Stot, founder and chief executive of Lonstar, says, Space -based data center organizations can help meet the rules about data sovereignty – the need to keep people’s data in the original country.

“Under the space law, that box of electronics is literally under the law of licensing or launching state – this is a real embassy in space,” they say.

Lonestar already has customers, including Florida State and Isle of Man Government.