SpaceX (SPAX.PVT) founder Elon Musk has said that he wants to put data centers in space. One industry founder told Yahoo Finance how it would actually work.
While the idea brings to mind massive buildings floating aimlessly through the cosmos, Christopher Stott, founder of Lonestar Data Holdings, a sovereign data storage company, told Yahoo Finance that the architecture of space-based computing is more akin to satellites orbiting in a tight, synchronized formation.
“Imagine a big data center that’s made out of Legos, and then you split those Lego bricks into all the individual bricks and have them fly in space right next to each other, and they all connect,” Stott said. The connection is formed through optical lasers and radio frequencies.
Lonestar is part of Nvidia’s (NVDA) Inception program, which grants early-stage ventures access to AI chips and support so they can build and scale faster. Since August 2021, Lonestar has launched four test data center payloads into space — two to the International Space Station and two to the lunar surface. Lonestar customers include governments, NGOs, and social media companies.
The biggest incentive to scale AI data centers in space is cost, Stott explained.
In orbit, data centers can cast off their heat directly into the freezing vacuum of space without relying on air-cooling technologies, while the sun provides a continuous supply of energy.
“Energy is so expensive,” he said. ” Now, once you build a space center, your biggest [operating expense] cost is gone.”
Multiple companies are trying to make the vision of data centers in space a reality. In its S-1 filing released Wednesday, SpaceX said its rockets and manufacturing expertise could power “massive AI compute satellite constellations — with potentially millions of satellites — for orbital data centers,” with the first launch as early as 2028.
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that Alphabet’s Google (GOOG) and SpaceX are in advanced discussions over launching data centers in space.
Last year, Google announced Project Suncatcher, a moonshot initiative aimed at launching prototype satellites by 2027. The company is working with Planet Labs to build those satellites. A partnership with SpaceX would enhance those aspirations, with SpaceX being the preeminent private rocket launch company and space payload provider, the Journal said.
In the long term, “space-based AI is obviously the only way to scale,” Elon Musk wrote in February when his startup XAI merged with SpaceX.
