As data center demand continues to boom, an answer to insatiable power demands might be found in Earth’s orbit.
Thales Alenia Space, a French space systems manufacturer that lives on government money, did a study recently about orbital DCs.
The purpose of the ASCEND study was to compare the environmental impacts of space-based and Earth-based data centers. It was also intended to validate the technological feasibility of developing, deploying and operating such centers in orbit. In order to significantly reduce the CO2 emissions generated by the processing and storage of digital, the results of the study estimate that such space infrastructures would require the development of a launcher ten times less emissive over its entire lifecycle. Moreover, space data centers would not require water to cool them, a key advantage in times of increasing drought.
So straightaway, you see the problems: the language is all about environmental sustainability and not about the technical aspects of this idea. And make no mistake, the hurdles are huge:
- They’re talking about developing a “new launcher” which is literal rocket science.
- “Space datacenters would not require water to cool them” – but they will require something. We have very little experience using a non-conducting vacuum like space as the sole cooling source.
- Is solar power enough? If not, you get into the old “what if the rocket blows up” anti-nuclear argument.
- And of course, this is not conventionally serviceable. And probably not feasibly serviceable either, so you have kit that slowly ages into obsolescence. Easy to get rid of (just fire those retro rockets and let it burn up), but can you put enough up there and get enough use in a relatively hort lifetime to really make this pay off?
So yes, if you look very narrowly at reducing the environmental impact of power generation on Earth, this looks great. But you may solve that problem by spending billions to put something in orbit with a very limited lifespan that come with a host of other problems.
When it comes to datacenters, power gen is really the only limiting factor. Land is available, and so are all the pieces and parts that go into a DC. But juice…
Of course, some people think we should put datacenters on the moon.
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