Could the future of data centres be in space?
There are almost 400 data centres in the UK alone, and planning applications for new facilities shot up by 40% in 2024. The rise of AI means that demand for data is increasing rapidly, with AI tools estimated to account for 44% of data centre operations within the next five years, making this a great time to be working within the data centre construction industry.
But, with the average data centre requiring 100,000 square metres of space – and the world’s largest (China Telecom’s $3 billion Inner Mongolia Information Park Data Centre) covering a whopping 10.7 million square feet, there is a pressing question: what happens if we can’t find the room for these facilities?
But there are several businesses and agencies exploring an out-of-the-world solution: data centres on the moon.
The idea’s been around for a few years and isn’t as far-fetched as it seems.
Last Summer, Thales Alenia Space – a French and Italian joint venture between aerospace and technology leaders Thales and Leonardo – completed it’s year-long European Commission funded feasibility study on space-based data centres, determining that the project was not only “within reach” but would have a lower carbon footprint than Earth-based facilities and offer a potential return on investment worth several billion euros by 2050.
Named the ASCEND project, the proposal would involve assembling modular space infrastructures in orbit using robotic technologies from the European Commission’s EROSS IOD (European Robotic Orbital Support Services in Orbit Demonstrator) with the goal of deploying one gigawatt of capacity by 2050
“The results of the ASCEND study confirm that deploying data centers in space could transform the European digital landscape, offering a more eco-friendly and sovereign solution for hosting and processing data. We’re proud to be contributing to an initiative supporting Europe’s net-zero objectives and strengthening its technological sovereignty.” said Christophe Valorge, Chief Technical Officer, Thales Alenia Space.
They’re not the only ones taking data centres above the clouds, with Florida-based company Lonestar Data Holdings announcing in March the successful commercial test and operation of its data center in orbit around the moon.
Significantly smaller than the massive data centres currently managing all our AI requests, this device was roughly the size of a hardback book, and was sent to the moon with Intuitive Machines’ Athena Lunar Lander, which was launched in February from a SpaceX rocket.
However with Athena landing on its side, preventing its solar panels from being able to generate enough power to carry out its operations, the full success of the mission is yet to be established. Despite this, the project still hit several major milestones with successful data storage tests including data handling, uploads, downloads, encryption, decryption, authentication and data manipulation all while in Lunar orbit – proving the viability for data centre technology in space.
Why build data centres in space?
Aside from the obvious solution of having infinite space to construct data centres, there are other significant benefits to the idea.
One of which is the ability to keep the facilities cool – a huge challenge with large data centres containing hundreds of constantly working machines that currently uses hundreds of litres of water.
They can also be powered with unlimited solar energy.
One small step?
The idea is clearly taking off with Lonestar’s next goal to put a small data centre in orbit around the moon by 2027, and Thales Alenia hoping to deploy a 50kw proof of concept by 2031.
Meanwhile Washington-based operate Starcloud are launching their own satellite-based data centre as early as May 2025, with the intention to start commercial operations in mid-2026.
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