Businessweek | The AI Issue
How to Build a Data Center in Space
Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos plan to make AI extraterrestrial.
Building data centers in space is still a relatively nascent idea, but it’s gaining traction and financial backing, as energy and space constraints limit the expansion of massive computing facilities here on Earth. Earlier this year, in the latest leg of their decades-long space race, Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin both announced plans to build and launch so-called orbital data centers.
These data centers would operate as networks of thousands, or even millions, of spacecraft circling the planet that receive and compute data on board, powered by constant energy from the sun. While many parts of an extraterrestrial data center would mirror those of a typical satellite network, they’ll have to be specially engineered to process large amounts of data transmitted from ground to orbit. In addition to manufacturing hurdles, the tremendous size of the proposed orbital data centers has raised concerns about the overcrowding of Earth’s orbit, which could increase the likelihood of satellite collisions and decrease the visibility of stars and other astronomical wonders.