Imagine if one company could become the rail, power company, and cloud computing provider for the emerging space economy. That possibility added to the excitement surrounding SpaceX’s long-awaited initial public offering. Investors are no longer just betting on rockets. They are betting on the entire ecosystem in orbit.
Among the most ambitious and challenging ideas riding on this wave of enthusiasm is one that sounds almost like science fiction: orbital data centers. SpaceX may be one of the most well-known companies looking to build them, but it’s not the only one.
The logic is fascinating. Once a data center is launched into orbit, solar energy is abundant and land, water, and local power grids are no longer a constraint. As computing demand explodes due to artificial intelligence, companies are touting orbital data centers as a way to escape the increasing environmental and infrastructure pressures of Earth-based computing. Data centers also often face pushback from the public for locating centers within communities.
But there’s a big difference between launching a satellite and operating industrial-scale computing infrastructure in orbit. The universe is unforgiving. Radiation damages electronic equipment. Electronic devices generate enormous amounts of heat, which is surprisingly difficult to remove in space. Repairs are very expensive and each launch into orbit still costs a lot of money.
We are engineering professors who study data center design and space systems engineering. Building a space-based data center requires consideration from both sides.
What’s in data centers on Earth?
First, let’s consider what’s in data centers around the planet, which are probably starting to pop up everywhere. These facilities will power cloud computing, video streaming, online banking, scientific computing, and increasingly, artificial intelligence. But a data center is not a room full of servers.
Several things are necessary for a data center to operate reliably. The first is electricity. Servers, networking equipment, and storage devices consume large amounts of power, and that power demand is rapidly increasing due to AI.
The second is cooling. Most of the power consumed by servers ends up as heat. If this heat is not removed quickly and reliably, it can degrade equipment performance, increase failures, and potentially shut down the data center. Cooling systems often include air handling units, chillers, cooling towers, pumps, and increasingly liquid cooling equipment. In many facilities, cooling is the second largest energy consumer after the computing equipment itself.
Third is the physical infrastructure such as the required land, buildings, structural support, backup power, water systems, communication networks, and maintenance access. Data centers also need to be close enough to users and the network backbone to provide high-speed digital services.
In other words, data centers on Earth are large electrical and thermal infrastructure systems built around computing hardware.
place in space
So what would it take to build these data centers in space, and why are companies seeing this possibility as such an interesting business proposition?
Just like on Earth, these data centers require large amounts of electricity. In space, this power is provided by solar panels. The sun always shines in space and is never blocked by clouds. However, depending on the orbit in which the solar panels are installed, parts of the orbit may be in the Earth’s shadow.
And even the best solar cells available today can only convert about half of the sunlight that hits them into electricity.
Another potential benefit seen in space is cooling. The cold background of the universe (nearly minus 455 degrees Fahrenheit, or minus 270 degrees Celsius) creates opportunities. Waste heat from the data center can escape into space through radiators, keeping electronics cool.
In principle, the design could eliminate some of the bulky, water-intensive cooling infrastructure used on Earth. However, these radiators require a large surface area, in addition to the surface area required by solar panels.
In space, there is no air to blow heat away from hot equipment. The heat must be emitted as infrared radiation, which is a relatively slow process. As a result, removing 10 megawatts of waste heat can require a radiator surface area equivalent to two football fields.
Space-based data centers could also avoid some of the localized conflicts associated with building large data centers on land. Many communities resist new data center development due to land use, energy and water demands, noise and environmental impacts.
Space-based systems avoid competition for local land and water resources, do not cause noise to neighbors, and do not require local zoning approvals as well.
But space is already crowded, and launching thousands of massive orbital data centers will only accelerate this problem. Debris and micrometeorites in orbit are dangerous because they can puncture space data centers, and a worst-case collision could destroy them and generate even more space debris.
The frequency of space launches required to send all the equipment into orbit may also be a concern for some communities. SpaceX has faced protests at its Boca Chica, Texas, launch facility from local activists who say the company’s rocket tests and launches are damaging the surrounding environment.
All this data must be transmitted between Earth and the data center, and between the data center itself, using radio waves or laser communication systems. Satellite constellations such as Starlink and Amazon Leo have demonstrated that this is possible, but the amount of data sent to and from space will be enormous.
Further challenges
These data centers cannot be launched in one piece with solar panels and radiators and must be assembled in space. This process will require new equipment for in-space servicing, assembly, and manufacturing.
Another important challenge is the refresh cycle of computing hardware. Data center servers are not built to last forever. Telecom operators around the globe typically replace or upgrade their hardware every three to five years as chips improve, workloads change, and equipment ages.
Additionally, equipment failure may require component replacement. On Earth, the update and repair process is relatively simple, allowing workers to physically remove and replace servers.
Refreshing and repairing will be much more difficult in space. Hardware sent into orbit may be difficult or too expensive to upgrade. If a computing platform cannot be updated or has too many components failing, it can become obsolete long before the surrounding infrastructure reaches the end of its useful life.
In a field where performance is rapidly improving and computing demands continue to increase, this hurdle can pose significant economic and operational challenges.
Then there’s the harshness of space. These data centers are located in a near-vacuum and are constantly exposed to radiation. And depending on its orbit, it changes from hot in the sun’s light to cold in Earth’s shadow many times a day. All these challenges and more are issues that need to be addressed.
So do they still make sense?
Despite these challenges, companies are moving ahead with space-based data center designs. SpaceX just announced a design for the AI1 Compute Satellite, which it hopes to use as an in-orbit data center spacecraft. However, the satellite’s capacity is 100 to 1,000 times lower than current data centers on Earth.
Not all computing tasks make sense in space. Many data center applications rely on fast response times and close connectivity with users around the globe. Financial transactions, interactive AI services, and most cloud applications are highly sensitive to latency.
More feasible early applications may be those with lower latency impacts and more closely related to space operations. Examples include processing Earth observation data from satellites, military or intelligence data processing, scientific computing related to space missions, or specialized computing for satellites and other space assets.
In other words, the first viable space data centers could serve space-based customers before competing with mainstream cloud data centers on Earth.
