BURSTDatacenters power the modern world. Nearly every aspect of modern life—from accessing social media and commerce sites to processing financial transactions and operating transportation networks—hinges on the computing power they provide.
Yet, datacenters have drawbacks: they consume enormous amounts of energy, occupy vast expanses of land, and require large volumes of water for cooling. From an energy and sustainability perspective, they pose major challenges.
As a result, startup companies like Starcloud and Lonestar Data Holdings aim to put datacenters in outer space. These facilities—designed to orbit the Earth or reside on the surface of the Moon—would reduce the need for water, electricity, and other earth-based resources. They could also provide greater resiliency.
“Space-based infrastructure could leverage the cold vacuum of space for cooling,” said Charles Doarn, director of the Armstrong Institute for Space, Technology, and Research at the University of Cincinnati. In addition to potential cost savings and sustainability gains, these facilities could boost resilience and perhaps even security.
However, before the concept can rocket into the mainstream, there are practical and technical issues to address, Doarn noted. These include the high cost of rockets—typically ranging between $7.5 million and $67 million per launch—and how to improve cooling technologies, protect systems from debris fields, and minimize latency as data travels across vast distances.
Clouds in Space
The idea of placing datacenters in Earth orbit or beyond has been floating around for years. High-intensity solar energy and radiative cooling make the prospect highly attractive—and potentially cost-effective. Terrestrial facilities operate at a cost about 5 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) for the least expensive power, while a celestial datacenter can lower the figure to about 0.1 cents per kWh, including launch costs, said Christopher Stott, chairman and CEO of Lonestar Data Holdings. Stott said this can lead to operating costs 97% lower than on Earth.
Space-based datacenters also produce solar energy at upwards of 40% more efficiency than on Earth with about 10 times lower emissions, even when launch emissions are factored into the equation. Other selling points include higher levels of network security, data sovereignty, and regulatory compliance. This makes space-based datacenters attractive for both data storage and edge-based data processing.
“Earth is where the data is created and has value. Yet Earth is also where data faces the most danger,” Stott said. Human error, ransomware, cable failures, cyberattacks, conventional warfare, climate change, and natural disasters represent significant risks. Lonestar operated a datacenter aboard the International Space Station and put another system on the lunar lander Nova-C in February 2024. Those systems run on Linux using off-the-shelf servers, chips, and components.
“Space-based datacenters are a natural next step for all terrestrial computing. In the same way we leverage space for communications, we can now leverage it for data,” Stott said. Lonestar plans to launch a payload into lunar orbit this year, aiming to build out “a series of purpose-built lunar-orbiting data storage spacecraft” in 2027, Stott said.
Servers Go Zero-G
Another pioneer in the data space race is Starcloud, which has designed, assembled, and tested a spacecraft that will soon deliver satellite-based compute and storage. The company plans to launch the demonstrator satellite in summer 2025. “This satellite offers 100x more GPU compute power than any other spacecraft launched before,” said Philip Johnson, CEO of Starcloud.
Starcloud’s spacecraft—essentially a group of large containers with server racks—uses solar arrays that conduct energy and pass it along to the high-density computing modules. Liquid cooling systems dissipate the heat generated from AI and other computing workloads. The heat is released directly into space. Latency between the satellite and Earth is about 20 milliseconds round-trip, Johnson said.
Orbital datacenters could perform at a level that’s unimaginable on Earth, Johnson said. Starcloud’s research shows that over a 10-year period, the cost of operating a single 40 megawatt cluster would be about US$8.2 million, versus $167 million for a terrestrial datacenter. Adding to the appeal: it’s possible to build out these datacenters without lengthy land-use studies and permitting processes. This, along with weightless fabrication and a modular design, allows Starcloud to assemble datacenters in space quickly, the company said.
Data Without Borders
Rapid advances in technology—fueled by lower-cost space vehicles and high-efficiency solar energy systems—are rocketing the idea forward. However, cost remains a barrier, and technical and practical challenges remain. For example, while space is cold, the lack of an atmosphere means that conduction and convection aren’t possible. “Cooling in space is hard,” Johnson said. “We need very large low-cost, low-mass, deployable radiators.”
Reliable, high-bandwidth communication with minimal latency is another challenge, though Starcloud and others are addressing the issue. In the past, geostationary satellites orbited the Earth at approximately 35,000 kilometers (22,000 miles), with latency of approximately 240 milliseconds. Next-generation low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites like Starlink circle the planet at about 500 kilometers, which produces sub-10-millisecond latency. That’s adequate for real-time financial trading, online gaming, and time-sensitive interactions.
Johnson believes that with more advanced satellite systems, communications networks will achieve performance that’s on par with today’s terrestrial networks. In fact, Starlink, Kuiper, and Keppler Communications are building out next-generation optical networks optimized for space. However, Stott believes out that latency can sometimes be beneficial because it can act as a buffer to help detect and prevent potential cyberattacks. “Latency equals resilience,” he said.
For now, the upfront costs will leave space-based datacenters beyond the orbit of most organizations. Government agencies and a handful of major companies will be the among the first to put data in space. In the European Union, a group called ASCEND (Advanced Space Cloud for European Net zero emission and Data sovereignty) hopes to build out space-based datacenters that would boost data sovereignty and reduce carbon emissions.
However, prices are likely to drop over the next few years—particularly as rocket launches become more affordable. Moreover, existing regulatory frameworks and international treaties favor space-based datacenters and international bodies largely accommodate space operations. This includes a United Nation’s Outer Space Treaty and ITU Radio Regulations that lay out strict data sovereignty standards.
Concluded Stott: “We have developed the technology. Datacenters in space are inevitable. We can’t solve climate change effectively if our data storage itself contributes significantly to environmental harm. Space datacenters offer a pathway toward truly sustainable computing infrastructure.”
Samuel Greengard is an author and journalist based in West Linn, OR, USA.