Data Centers on the Moon: Genius or Foolhardy?

Tomorrow, February 26, Spacex A will be launched Falcon 9 Rocket Intuitive machines The task that will remain on the surface moon For about three weeks before returning to the ground. Among other things, Lander for intuitive machines contains a small data center SSD storage. This belongs to Lonestar Data Holdings It is part of the task of proving the concept that aims to bring the moon to the moon Data centers Closer to reality.

The idea of ​​placing a data center on the moon raises a natural question: Why? Lonestar CEO Christopher Stote He says it is to protect sensitive data from the ground risks.

“Data centers, right? They are like modern cathedrals. We build these things, they run our entire civilization. It is a wonderful thing, yet you realize that the networks that have increasingly brittle them.”

The case of the moon -based data centers

In fact, on Earth, Under sea cables mostly Get piecesWhich leads to interruption. Natural disasters Love Hurricanes and EarthquakesIn addition to war, networks can also be disabled or the same data can be destroyed. The moon’s surface is a place that can be predicted much more – there is almost no atmosphere, and therefore do not worry climate events. there radiationIt is somewhat fixed. The moon is not a war zone, at least at the present time.

“We call it flexibility as a service,” says Stot. “It is like a completely new level of backup that has never been before.”

Another motivation is Data sovereignty. More than 100 countries around the world have laws that restrict the place where some data can be processed and stored, and often within this country itself. As a provider of the data center, it is impossible to accommodate all potential customers anywhere, except in outer space. According to the United Nations 1967 Outside space treatySpace and moon “are not subject to national credits by claiming sovereignty”, and in this way it represents a loophole of the laws of database. The American satellite displays the American law, but it can carry a black box inside it under British law, or any other country. The Data Center based on the moon can host the largest number of separate Black boxes As needed, to accommodate all its various customers.

Governments seem to be particularly interested in this possibility. This test mission will carry data for the Florida state government as well as to Man. You will also hold a copy of Petsda gamesStarfieldAnd it will transfer the distinctive game song “Heaven’s childrenBy imagining Dragons to return to Earth throughout the task, just for fun.

Amit VermaMr Electrical engineering In Texas A & M University Kingsville that does not belong to the project, he says that there may be technical advantages to host data on the moon as well. Some parts of the moon are permanently shaded and thus coldGet up to -173 Celsius. This means that you will not need to spend any energy or water to cool the data center. The electrical components will perform more efficiently.

“When you put data centers in environments that are already very cold … performance also improves significantly,” says Verma. “Because when it decreases in temperature, things like electrical resistance also decrease.”

The entire future -based data centers can be turned on solar energy, because the moon’s surface parts that are always cold, near the moon’s pillars, are relatively close to the edges of the hole that are always exposed to sunlight, which is not accumulated by an atmosphere. In theory, data centers can be hidden away from the sun and energy can be transmitted from these edges, which leads to a completely renewed process at a low temperature.

The dark side of the moon -based data center

There are also clear challenges. First, the moon is far away, which means that the data will take time to access it. The mono -directional cumin is 1.4 seconds, which excludes data that must be accessed in actual time.

“Anything requires account” in the actual time “will be a challenge with 1.4 transition time, like Live RunningGames, Independent vehicles Or trading high frequency, “he says Kent DripperThe chief commercial employee in the provider of the data center Irene Without involved in this effort. “However, there are many work burdens that can still be supported by one -second processing speed. For example, artificial intelligence training burdens or even unrealistic male reasoning such as image processing.” but “In addition to a high access time, the low frequency range will be a challenge”, ” Dripper He adds.

Second, if something is broken on the moon, it is difficult to fix it.

“Operating Data Centers for Intensive Energy Account is very complex, between the management of energy and cooling systems, let’s along the training Servers To the customer specifications, “Dripper says.” We have a team of experts on the site running our data centers around the clock throughout the week, including network engineers, data center technicians and systems engineers, Davus Engineers and engineers solutions, etc.. Strot argues that this can be diluted by performing a lot of ground -based tests and includes additional Repetition In data.

After that, while physical intervention of wars, hurricanes and other earthly turmoil is less likely, Cyber ​​security It is still a problem, even on the moon. However, the Texas A & M Verma suggests that due to the presence of these systems from the zero point, they can benefit from the latest and most secure cybersecurity protocols, making it safer than the medium data center on Earth.

Last but not another, it will cost the money, as well as Research and development Time, to learn how to get larger data centers there. “Humans have not gone to the moon in the past fifty years, but they are planning to go again in the next ten,” says Verma. “We don’t know how the cost will develop in the future. So there is a little uncertainty. However, it will be one time.”

Full steam

Stott is not stagnant from these concerns. Last year, Lunstar It was tested Virtual Data Center on the moon (a Software Operation on third -party devices on a previous mission of the intuitive machines), and check that they can communicate from Earth to the virtual data center while it is near the moon by sending the independence declaration back and forth. For Stott, this second task is just the next step in their plan to store data on or near the moon.

Lionestar has plans to put the following data centers in Lunar L4 and L5 Lagrange pointsStable attractions along the orbit of the moon. After that, the plan is to put data centers in the moon Laab tubesWhere the inner temperature is approximately -20 ° C, which will lead to effective operation without going to the lunar columns.

Despite the challenges, Reda NikoviAnother professor of electrical engineering at the University of Texas A &M Kingsville, believes that the advantages are great enough to try to effort, and there is a reason for optimism. “If this thing succeeds, and they show that this is very possible, I think it is during the next few years, the databases are the place where the money will be, and this will be the next engine of space technology.”