The AI boom is driving tech companies to build more data centers, but finding a location is getting tougher. Residents are pushing back, citing concerns over electricity and water usage for cooling. Lonestar Data Holdings has a radical solution: build a data center in space. This idea was born after the company tested a small data center, about the size of a book, on a SpaceX rocket in March.
Space-based data centers have advantages. They can tap into limitless solar power and avoid environmental protests. They can also provide faster data transfer services to spaceships or other orbital data centers. In 2024, a study by Thales Alenia Space found that space-based data centers could change how Europe manages digital data, making it more environmentally friendly. The company plans to launch 13 satellites, spanning 200×80 meters, with a processing power of 10 megawatts – equivalent to a data center with 5,000 servers on Earth.
For space-based data centers to be eco-friendly, they need to use cleaner rocket fuel, reducing emissions by 10 times. To be cost-effective, they should increase processing power to 200 megawatts, requiring a large infrastructure and 200 rocket launches. However, this would need a modified spaceship, which might be available by 2030 or 2035. Experts warn that transporting large structures to space will be expensive, and the harsh environment can damage equipment. When something breaks, it’s hard to send someone to fix it, and relying on remote-controlled robots can be risky.
Lonestar plans to build a lunar-orbiting data center by 2027, targeting government and security-conscious clients. Since the data center will be far from Earth, hacking will be more difficult. However, transferring data from the Moon to Earth will take about 1.5 seconds, which might not be a problem for certain applications, like long-term data storage. Space-based data centers also have the advantage of being outside national borders, making them subject to the laws of the country that launched the spacecraft, similar to how embassies work.
The company has already secured clients, including the state of Florida and the government of the Isle of Man. As the tech industry continues to evolve, space-based data centers might become a reality sooner than we think.