Tech firms are floating the idea of building data centers in space and tapping into the sun’s energy to meet out-of-this-world power demands in a fierce artificial intelligence (AI) race.
US start-up Starcloud this week sent a refrigerator-sized satellite containing an Nvidia graphics processing unit (GPU) into orbit in what the AI chipmaker touted as a “cosmic debut” for the mini-data center.
“The idea is that it will soon make much more sense to build data centers in space than it does to build them on Earth,” Starcloud chief executive Philip Johnston said at a recent tech conference in Riyadh.
Photo: AFP
Along with a constant supply of solar energy, data centers are easier to cool in space, advocates say.
Announcements have come thick and fast, the latest being Google this week unveiling plans to launch test satellites by early 2027 as part of its Project Suncatcher.
That news came just days after tech billionaire Elon Musk claimed his Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) should be capable of deploying data centers in orbit next year thanks to its Starlink satellite program.
Starcloud’s satellite was taken into space by a SpaceX rocket on Sunday.
Current projects to put data centers into orbit envision relying on clusters of low Earth orbit satellites positioned close enough together to ensure reliable wireless connectivity.
Lasers would connect space computers to terrestrial systems.
“From a proof concept, it’s already there,” said University of Arizona engineering professor Krishna Muralidharan, who is involved with such work.
Muralidharan believes space data centers could be commercially viable in about a decade.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the tech titan behind private space exploration company Blue Origin, has estimated it might take up to twice that long.
Critical technical aspects of such operations need to be resolved, particularly harm done to GPUs by high levels of radiation and extreme temperatures, as well as the danger of being hit by space junk.
“Engineering work will be necessary,” University of Michigan assistant professor of engineering Christopher Limbach said, adding that it is a matter of cost rather than technical feasibility.
The big draw of space for data centers is power supply, with the option of synchronizing satellites to the sun’s orbit to ensure constant light on solar panels.
Tech titans building AI data centers have ever-growing need for electricity, and have even taken to investing in nuclear power plants.
Data centers in space also avoid the challenges of acquiring land and meeting local regulations or community resistance to projects.
Advocates say that data centers operating in space are less harmful overall to the environment, aside from the pollution generated by rocket launches.
Water needed to cool a space data center would be about the same amount used by a space station, relying on exhaust radiators and reusing a relatively small amount of liquid.
“The real question is whether the idea is economically viable,” Limbach said.
An obstacle to deploying servers in space has been the cost of getting them into orbit.
However, a reusable SpaceX mega-rocket called Starship with massive payload potential promises to slash launch expenses by at least 30 times.
“Historically, high launch costs have been a primary barrier to large-scale space-based systems,” Project Suncatcher head Travis Beals wrote online.
Project launch pricing data suggest prices might fall by the mid-2030s to the point at which “operating a space-based data center could become comparable” to having it on Earth, Beals added.
“If there ever was a time to chart new economic paths in space — or reinvent old ones — it is now,” Limbach said.
With much pomp and circumstance, Cairo is today to inaugurate the long-awaited Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), widely presented as the crowning jewel on authorities’ efforts to overhaul the country’s vital tourism industry. With a panoramic view of the Giza pyramids plateau, the museum houses thousands of artifacts spanning more than 5,000 years of Egyptian antiquity at a whopping cost of more than US$1 billion. More than two decades in the making, the ultra-modern museum anticipates 5 million visitors annually, with never-before-seen relics on display. In the run-up to the grand opening, Egyptian media and official statements have hailed the “historic moment,” describing the
‘CHILD PORNOGRAPHY’: The doll on Shein’s Web site measure about 80cm in height, and it was holding a teddy bear in a photo published by a daily newspaper France’s anti-fraud unit on Saturday said it had reported Asian e-commerce giant Shein (希音) for selling what it described as “sex dolls with a childlike appearance.” The French Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) said in a statement that the “description and categorization” of the items on Shein’s Web site “make it difficult to doubt the child pornography nature of the content.” Shortly after the statement, Shein announced that the dolls in question had been withdrawn from its platform and that it had launched an internal inquiry. On its Web site, Le Parisien daily published a
China’s Shenzhou-20 crewed spacecraft has delayed its return mission to Earth after the vessel was possibly hit by tiny bits of space debris, the country’s human spaceflight agency said yesterday, an unusual situation that could disrupt the operation of the country’s space station Tiangong. An impact analysis and risk assessment are underway, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said in a statement, without providing a new schedule for the return mission, which was originally set to land in northern China yesterday. The delay highlights the danger to space travel posed by increasing amounts of debris, such as discarded launch vehicles or vessel
RUBBER STAMP? The latest legislative session was the most productive in the number of bills passed, but critics attributed it to a lack of dissenting voices On their last day at work, Hong Kong’s lawmakers — the first batch chosen under Beijing’s mantra of “patriots administering Hong Kong” — posed for group pictures, celebrating a job well done after four years of opposition-free politics. However, despite their smiles, about one-third of the Legislative Council will not seek another term in next month’s election, with the self-described non-establishment figure Tik Chi-yuen (狄志遠) being among those bowing out. “It used to be that [the legislature] had the benefit of free expression... Now it is more uniform. There are multiple voices, but they are not diverse enough,” Tik said, comparing it
RSS