Data centers in outer space emerge as solution to AI's massive energy requirements
Surging demand for energy to power artificial intelligence (AI) data centers is reaching new heights as companies are pursuing plans to station data centers in space.
Billionaire entrepreneurs Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, and Jeff Bezos, founder of Blue Origin, have signaled they're working on developing data centers to be stationed in space, which would allow the energy-intensive data centers to be cooled more cost efficiently than on Earth, given the strain they impose on the electric grid.
An upcoming space launch will serve as another key test as another firm, LoneStar Data Holdings, pursues its goal of having AI data centers in space within a decade.
Sidus Space is set to launch its LizzieSat-4 and -5 into orbit later this year on a SpaceX rocket with a payload that will include a data center from LoneStar Data Holdings that will go into orbit. LoneStar's data center will serve customers, including U.S.-based AI data labs.
LoneStar recently sent a data center to the moon on a test mission and successfully transmitted video, documents and AI analytics back to Earth during its flight. The company plans to have data centers orbiting the moon by 2028 and located on the lunar surface by the early 2030s.
LoneStar founder Chris Stott told FOX Business Network's Madison Alworth that space is "unique" in the cooling and energy properties at play for data centers, as well as other factors.
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"But more importantly, down here on the ground where we create the data, is also where we have the storms, the hurricanes, the hacking, the cyber ransoms, all of the problems with networks. And this allows us to do a backup off-planet but in-country," he said.
He added that the emerging space data storage industry initially faced a perception challenge amid questions about whether it was technically feasible or necessary, but the data center boom over the past year has helped it move from "science fiction to science fact."
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Nicole Stott, a retired astronaut and member of LoneStar's advisory board, said that putting data centers in space would mitigate issues posed by data centers on Earth, such as the strain on the electric grid.
"There's so much about this near-Earth environment that provides us with ways to lift some of the most harmful industry off the planet and put it into the benign environment of space in a thoughtful and, I think, ultimately sustainable way as well," she explained.