GoKawiilImagine if one company could become the railroad, electric utility and cloud-computing provider of the emerging space economy. That potential fueled excitement around the long-anticipated initial public offering of SpaceX. Investors are not simply betting on rockets anymore. They are betting on an entire orbital ecosystem.
Among the most ambitious and challenging ideas riding this wave of enthusiasm is something that sounds almost like science fiction: orbital data centers. SpaceX may be one of the most well-known companies seeking to build them, but it is not the only one.
The logic is seductive: Launch the data centers into orbit, where solar energy is abundant and land, water and local power grids are no longer constraints. As artificial intelligence drives an explosion in computing demand, companies are pitching orbital data centers as a way to escape the growing environmental and infrastructure pressures of Earth-based computing. Data centers often also face backlash from the public at having these centers located in their communities.
But there is a vast difference between launching satellites and operating an industrial-scale computing infrastructure in orbit. Space is unforgiving. Radiation damages electronics. The electronics generate enormous amounts of heat, and getting rid of that heat is surprisingly difficult in space. Repairs are extraordinarily expensive, and every pound launched into orbit still carries a significant cost.
We are engineering professors who study data center design and space systems engineering. Building a space-based data center will involve considerations from both sides.
What goes into a data center on Earth
First off, consider what goes into an Earth-based data center, like those that you’ve probably begun to see pop up everywhere. These facilities power cloud computing, video streaming, online banking, scientific computing and, increasingly, artificial intelligence. But a data center is much more than a room full of servers.
A data center needs several things to operate reliably. The first is electric power. Servers, networking equipment and storage devices consume large amounts of electricity, and that power demand is growing rapidly with AI.
The second is cooling. Almost all the electricity consumed by servers eventually becomes heat. If that heat is not removed quickly and reliably, equipment performance drops, failures increase and the data center can shut down. Cooling systems often include air handling units, chillers, cooling towers, pumps and, increasingly, liquid-cooling equipment. In many facilities, cooling is the largest energy consumer after the computing equipment itself.
The third is physical infrastructure, including the necessary land, buildings, structural support, backup power, water systems, communication networks and maintenance access. Data centers also need to be close enough to users and network backbones to provide fast digital services.
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