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BBC News
09-04-2025
- Business
- BBC News
The plans to put data centres into orbit and on the moon
It sounds like something from a science fiction movie, but Stephen Eisele is confident that one day his company will open a data centre on the Moon."The way we see it is that by putting the data centre in space, you're really offering unparalleled security," says the president of Lonestar Data month, the Florida-based firm claimed to have successfully tested a tiny data centre the size of a hardback book that hitched a ride to the Moon on the Athena Lunar Lander from US space exploration firm Intuitive Machines. This, in turn, had been launched by a rocket from Elon Musk's centres are the vast warehouses that house stacks of computers that store and process data used by websites, companies and says that putting them on the Moon will offer customers secure, reliable data processing, while taking advantage of unlimited solar energy to power them. And while space-based data centres may sound far-fetched, it's an idea that's really starting to take of the reason is rocketing demand and the difficulty of finding suitable sites on ever-expanding use of artificial intelligence (AI) computing has seen a massive increase in the amount of data that needs to be stored and processed around the a result, the need for data centres has shot up too, with annual demand set to rise between 19% and 22% by 2030, according to global management consultants facilities are springing up all the time - but it's getting hard to find places to put them. Data centres are large and sprawling, and use enormous amounts of power and water for increasingly local people don't want them built nearby. Putting data centres in space – either in orbit around Earth, or on the Moon - the theory goes, means they can't do quite so much harm. There's more-or-less unlimited energy available from the sun, for example, and no neighbours to complain about the environmental only that, space-based data centres could specialise in services for spacecraft and other space facilities, with space-to-space data transfers quicker than from the summer, a European Commission-funded feasibility study into orbiting data centres published its Ascend report by carried out by Thales Alenia Space - a joint venture between French and Italian aerospace groups Thales and Leonardo - published its determined that deploying data centres in space "could transform the European digital landscape", and be "more eco-friendly".Thales Alenia Space envisages building a constellation of 13 satellites measuring a combined 200m-by-80m, and with a total data processing power of around 10 megawatts (MW). That's equivalent to a current medium-sized, ground-based data centre, with some 5,000 on technologies that already exist or are under development, the satellites would be assembled in orbit. Damien Dumestier, Ascend project architect at Thales Alenia Space, says that for space-based data centres to be more environmentally friendly than existing ground-based ones it will be necessary to make the rocket launchers 10 times less emissive over their lifecycles. He says this looks possible."But in order to cover the new technology's developments and the production capacity ramp-up to benefit from scale, we have to consider larger system capacity, around 200MW, meaning 200 of our envisaged large space infrastructures and 200 launches," he says."The main question is when an adapted launcher will be ready. Depending on the investment and decisions to be taken, this could be done for 2030 or 2035, meaning commercial viability before 2037." However, despite this optimism from firms aiming to develop the technology, Dr Domenico Vicinanza, associate professor of intelligent systems and data science at Anglia Ruskin University in the UK, says there are numerous big hurdles before space-based data centres can be a viable proposition."Even with the contribution and advancements of companies like SpaceX, launching hardware into orbit remains extremely expensive," he says. "Each kilogram sent into space costs thousands of dollars."Space-based data centres would require not only the data equipment but also the infrastructure to protect, power, and cool them. All of which add up in weight and complexity."Cooling the equipment will be a particular problem, because even though space is cold, conventional cooling systems don't work will without space weather can damage electronics, while the ever-increasing quantity of space debris puts the physical hardware at Vicinanza adds: "And fixing problems in orbit is far from straightforward. Even with robotics and automation, there are limits to what can be repaired remotely."A big hardware failure might necessitate a costly human mission, potentially making downtime stretch for weeks or months." Yet firms like Lonestar are supremely confident, and say that they are responding to demand. "We wouldn't be doing this if the customers weren't asking us to," says Mr next target is to put a small data centre in orbit around the moon in 2027. Meanwhile, other companies are hoping to get there a bit faster, such as Washington state-based Starcloud, which is due to launch a satellite-based data centre next month, and start commercial operations in Mr Eidele says that space-based facilities offer more security for governments and businesses because their data does not need to be routed through terrestrial networks. Instead the information can be beamed directly from space to a dedicated ground station."It's like having the vaults at the back of the bank," he says. "You don't have to open it every day, but it's there to provide an extra measure of security, and the distance from the Earth to the moon offers that - it's that much harder to hack, that much harder to access."The distance to the Moon means that data takes about a second and a half to reach the ground - this doesn't matter for some applications, like longer-term data storage and meanwhile, says Lonestar founder and chief executive Chris Stott, space-based data centres can help organisations meet regulations about data sovereignty - the need to hold peoples' data in the country of origin."Under space law, that box of electronics is literally under the law of the licensing or launching state - it is an actual embassy in space," he already has customers lined up, including the state of Florida and the Isle of Man government.
Yahoo
05-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Lunar Data Center Achieves First Success En Route To The Moon
Lonestar's Freedom Data Center Payload successfully meets all of its technical and commercial milestones in CisLunar Space ahead of Historic Moon Landing ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., March 5, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Lonestar Data Holdings has reached a historic milestone with the successful commercial test and operation of its data center en route to the Moon marking a pivotal step in establishing the first-ever commercial lunar data center as a new layer of critical resilient data center infrastructure serving the world. Since launching on the 26th February, Lonestar's Freedom data center payload has traveled over 300,000 kilometers and has now entered Lunar Orbit traveling to the Moon on Intuitive Machines' Athena Lunar Lander. En route to the Moon in CisLunar space , Lonestar's data center payload successfully completed a series of critical commercial operational tests, proving the viability, functionality, communication, and resilience of its data center technology in space. Notable achievements include: Successful test of data storage and Disaster Recovery for its Government and Enterprise customers. Here Lonestar executed file uploads, downloads, data encryption, decryption, authentication, and in-space data manipulation for its customers. Lonestar's payload successfully executed edge processing tasks in space, including data handling for Valkyrie AI, the Exploration Institute, and other key customers. Lonestar's payload successfully demonstrated its in-space endurance with all of its power, temperature, CPU memory, and telemetry readings remaining stable, demonstrating the survivability of Lonestar's technology in the harsh environment of space at both upper and lower operational limits. Lonestar's first commercial lunar data center is designed to provide secure, resilient, and independent storage for mission-critical data beyond Earth. It has now successfully demonstrated this for its key customers. Next Up: Preparing for Lunar Surface Operations With its data center successfully proven for in-space functionality, Lonestar is preparing for the next phase of its mission: lunar surface operations. When Athena lands as planned no earlier than March 6, Lonestar's technology will undergo additional tests on the Moon's surface, further validating its ability to store and process data in one of the most extreme environments known to humanity. A Historic Step for Data Storage in Space "Harnessing space as a resource for business, innovation, and long-term sustainability is key to driving the growth of the new space economy. At Space Florida, we are committed to advancing infrastructure and fostering partnerships that ensure Florida remains the premier hub for interplanetary commerce," said Rob Long, president and CEO of Space Florida. "Congratulations to our partners at Lonestar on another successful test mission to the Moon." "This is our Kitty Hawk moment. This is where the future begins for this new resilient layer of critical global infrastructure serving us all down here on Earth. This is an extraordinary moment for Lonestar and for the future of secure global data storage," said Chris Stott, CEO of Lonestar Data Holdings. "By proving that our technology can operate in space, we are one step closer to establishing the Lunar L1 Lagrange Point and the Moon as the ultimate off-Earth storage and data resiliency solutions. We are thrilled with the results so far and eagerly anticipate the next phase of this groundbreaking mission." Leveraging Earth's largest satellite, the Moon, and the space around it to ensure secure data storage with, data sovereignty, security, resiliency and redundancy will become increasingly vital. Lonestar is committed to pioneering lunar-based edge computing and storage solutions, ensuring that critical digital assets can be preserved independent of Earth-based infrastructure. With its successful milestones en route to the Moon, Lonestar is now poised to make history as the first company to operate a commercial data center on the lunar surface. About Lonestar Data Holdings Lonestar Data Holdings is a pioneering data center company utilizing space technology to provide a critical layer of resilient secure and compliant data center infrastructure to support a layer of secure, off-Earth data storage and computing solutions. By leveraging Cislunar orbits and the Moon's stable environment, Lonestar is developing a new paradigm for data sovereignty, security, and resilience for governments, corporations, and future space missions. Lonestar's mission is Resiliency as a Service (RaaS) for premium global secure data storage. To do this Lonestar is backing up terrestrial data centers and their premium customers via an independent space-based data storage and communications network . Lonestar has been founded by a proven team of experts from the Cloud and Space verticals to pioneer a future for data at the edge for all of us. Our mission is to apply abundance thinking and exponential technologies to the endless possibilities of lunar data storage for humanity and in so doing to the exploration of the Moon and beyond. Lonestar offers Global Backup, Global Refresh, and Global Restore. Lonestar's vision is fueled by remarkable investors led by Scout Ventures, 2 Future Holdings, Seldor Capital, the Veteran Fund. Irongate Global Capital, Atypical Ventures, Kittyhawk Ventures, and Backswing February 2024, Lonestar successfully tested its first data center from the Moon and in Cislunar space. Stay tuned for our next steps and giant leaps. Lonestar is committed to a carbon negative future. For more information about Lonestar Data Holdings Inc. and the Freedom Payload mission, please visit View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Lonestar Data Holdings Inc. 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