The idea of moving data centres to the Moon, or hosting them in lunar orbit by dedicated satellites, is emerging as a feasible, albeit ambitious, response to address the rising data storage needs and the problems of hosting them on the planet. This futuristic dream, inaugurated by the American start-up Lonestar, makes no bones about its aim to utilise space as an impenetrable and secure haven for digital data, which leads us to wonder about the future of digital sovereignty. For example, in Italy, as elsewhere, data centres are concentrated in specific areas, such as around Milan. Even if there is a need to be more spread across the country to deal with the exponential increase in data traffic, the potential for spatial delocalisation cannot be ruled out. On the contrary, it provides considerable food for thought.
Lonestar has recently announced a successful test of a mini lunar data centre, the size of a book, that was brought onto the surface of our natural satellite by US space company Intuitive Machines’ Athena lander, whose launch was enabled by a SpaceX rocket from Elon Musk’s company. For Lonestar, the primary advantages of space-based data centres are two: enhanced physical and logical security due to the distance from potential Earthly dangers and access to solar energy more directly and regularly than is possible on Earth. What might seem like a fanciful idea is gathering momentum incredibly rapidly, especially so with the artificial intelligence boom and the subsequent speeding up of demand for data processing and storage centres. The availability of suitable space to house data centres on our planet is turning into an increasingly pressing issue.
The are some projects already
Lonestar has already tested software-defined data centres on the Moon from February 2024. The final goal is the installation of infrastructure for automated and, subsequently, human settlements in space. In this respect, the Italian Space Agency (ASI) is presently engaged in the design of living and working modules for NASA’s Artemis program. McKinsey predicts demand for data centres to grow by 19% to 22% each year until 2030, pointing to the necessity for creative solutions.
It is not simple to find an ideal location for a data centre on Earth, considering the huge energy consumption and need for sophisticated cooling systems. Moreover, the local community tends to protest the establishment of these centres in their vicinity. Lunar or Earth orbit here can turn into a win-win situation.
Not to mention, space data centres could specialise in processing data in space itself, creating new frontiers for the transmission of information between different space entities. A recent feasibility study commissioned by the European Union and conducted by Thales Alenia Space, the joint venture between France’s Thales and Italy’s Telespazio, demonstrated how the deployment of data centres in space would transform Europe’s digital scenario while making it more environmentally sustainable. Thales Alenia Space is working on a constellation of 13 satellites with a power of 10 megawatts, the equivalent of a medium data centre with around 5,000 servers.
A totally new frontier
However, the issue of launching into space is not an insignificant issue from an environmental standpoint. It is hoped that a suitable launcher to transport large infrastructures will be available around 2037, allowing time for technologies to be refined and the environmental footprint to be reduced. Currently, the cost of placing any manner of object in orbit is exceedingly high. To this are included other technological issues. While space is inherently cold, there will be a need for effective cooling systems, the design and operation of which in zero gravity comprise a significant engineering challenge. The electronics in data centres can be damaged by space weather, and the increasing prevalence of space debris poses a constant menace to hardware integrity. Repair work in orbit, it is easy to imagine, would be extremely complex and costly.
Despite these challenges, in addition to Lonestar, another competitor, Washington-based Starcloud, is also going in this direction, with the announcement of the opening of its first data centre next month and the launch of commercial operations planned for 2026. The space data centre race has thus begun, and with it come interesting questions about the future of data storage, cyber security and the possibilities of digital sovereignty in an extra-terrestrial context. Though the technological and economic challenges are tremendous, the growing demand for digital infrastructure and the search for innovative solutions can soon make this space vision a reality.
