First-ever data center on the Moon set to launch next month

[zohaibahd]

In brief: The new space race has attracted multiple private ventures. From cargo delivery to facility construction in orbit and on the Moon, the burgeoning space economy has everyone racing to get in on the ground floor. If successful, an upcoming mission will establish the first lunar data center.

Florida-based startup Lonestar Data Holdings plans to launch the first Moon-based data center dubbed the "Freedom Data Center." The compact but fully operational information hub will piggyback on an upcoming lunar lander mission by Intuitive Machines aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in February. Lonestar says storing data on the Moon offers unique benefits.

First, it provides unmatched physical security and protection from natural disasters, cyber threats, and geopolitical conflicts that could put Earth-based data at risk. The solar-powered mini-facility is also much more environmentally friendly than energy-hungry data centers on our home planet, utilizing naturally cooled solid-state drives.

The company has already lined up some high-profile early customers for their lunar platform, including the state of Florida, the Isle of Man government, AI firm Valkyrie, and the pop rock band Imagine Dragons.

The company has been working towards this milestone for years, successfully testing data storage on the Moon in February last year and aboard the International Space Station in 2021. However, putting something as complex as a data center on the lunar surface is still an enormous technical challenge.

The harsh environment, maintenance difficulties, and astronomical costs could create some problematic issues. There are also inherent risks associated with space launch. There is no option for equipment recovery if something goes wrong. Thankfully, the data center will have a ground-based backup at a Flexential facility in Tampa.

Lonestar has yet to release specific operational details or hardware specs. It will be interesting to see the company's plans for communication between lunar and ground-based facilities.

Lonestar isn't the only venture planning to establish a lunar data center. Reuters reports that several other companies are eyeing similar space-based facilities, including Lumen Orbit, which recently raised $11 million at a $40 million valuation.

Masthead credit: Pavel Chagochkin

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First-ever data center on the Moon set to launch next month

 

[Ashford]

Data retrieval times mysteriously absent.. would also be curious about consistency.

 

[The Talking Tech]

Great... because polluting the Earth wasn't enough.

 

[NumberNine]

Enjoy your two years of free credit monitoring when China clips a tether to it and hauls it home with physically no way to stop them.

 

[Mr Majestyk]

What about cosmic rays? Will it be on the dark side or in a huge crater in a spot that gets no sunlight?

Any way the main users of this would be tax dodgers that use the Cayman Islands or like to hide their wealth.

 

[Squid Surprise]

Enjoy your two years of free credit monitoring when China clips a tether to it and hauls it home with physically no way to stop them.

Not to mention since the only way to access it will be remotely, all a hacker has to do is spoof those credentials...

 

[yannus]

A lot of sci-fi these days. Let's spend a tremendous amount of money in the dumbest project ever ! Anyways people will believe it, as they believe about anything that makes them dream.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

I feel like we're in some sort of weird thoughts bubble thing here where everyone is still acting like venture capital money is being shat from the sky.

Feels like anyone with money is trying to get off the planet...

 

[0dium]

And what about asteroids?

 

[HardwareHunt365]

Great... because polluting the Earth wasn't enough.

It's inevitable: by 2100, massive complexes will likely exist on the Moon.

By 2500 (or sooner), humanity may have advanced to extrasolar planetary exploration and construction. Of course, there will always be criticism of such advancements; after all, they are unprecedented.

 

[Underdog]

Long before 2500 the earth will have become unfit for human habitation and way before that the rich will have squeezed the last dollar out of those further down the food chain.
Game Over.

 

[Keith91]

What about cosmic rays? Will it be on the dark side or in a huge crater in a spot that gets no sunlight?

Any way the main users of this would be tax dodgers that use the Cayman Islands or like to hide their wealth.

Contrary to Pink Floyd's one album title, there's no dark side of the moon. All sides of the moon get equal sunlight, so I guess we'll see if cosmic rays will deteriorate the materials.

 

[Resonator]

That's going to have some SERIOUS latency: "Propagation time to the Moon and back ranges from 2.4 to 2.7 seconds, with an average of 2.56 seconds (the average distance from Earth to the Moon is 384,400 km)." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth–Moon–Earth_communication

 

[mcnabney]

1. Cosmic rays - so there will be a lot of weight in shielding.
2. Any location on the moon receives 327.5 hours of sunlight, followed by 327.5 hours of complete darkness - so a solar powered data center will have to shut down in advance (and then later start up) so it will be 'off' the majority of the time.
3. It will be just as insecure from hacking as any other data center.
4. Data centers require constant physical maintenance. Good luck with that.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

Any way the main users of this would be tax dodgers that use the Cayman Islands or like to hide their wealth.

From the article the main users seem to be governments. You know those spending others money that face no repercussions when their bad spending decisions backfire or fail.

 

[JamesBlond]

If you believe this BS ....well, lets just say your Next Level 9491520

 

[Subset6]

Very doubtful extended stays on the moons surface will stand up to the solar winds, and definitely not solar flares / cme’s.

 

[sreams]

Data retrieval times mysteriously absent.. would also be curious about consistency.

Also... proof that the Moon is real is mysteriously absent.

 

[Godel]

Something ...something ... Florida Man?

 

[scoffer]

I feel like we're in some sort of weird thoughts bubble thing here where everyone is still acting like venture capital money is being shat from the sky.

Feels like anyone with money is trying to get off the planet...

Can you blame them really?

 

[LemmingO]

LOL. What an utter joke...

Let's talk about heat dissipation in a vacuum

 

[JHayward]

Cheap mission
(Humans do not need to go to the moon to build a data center.)
1. Choose a site on the side where there is constant light for a powerplant
2. Drop the robots on the site
3. Drop building materials on the site in containers
4. Program robots to build the data center using the materials directly from the container.
5. Program robots to maintain the data center, physical maintenance
6. Sit back, monitor, make corrections, Imagon those Dragons across the galaxy


Phase 2
Use the same robots to build anything you drop in a container. Hotels. Pyramids. Roadways, recycling centers.

 

[Squid Surprise]

Cheap mission
(Humans do not need to go to the moon to build a data center.)
1. Choose a site on the side where there is constant light for a powerplant
2. Drop the robots on the site
3. Drop building materials on the site in containers
4. Program robots to build the data center using the materials directly from the container.
5. Program robots to maintain the data center, physical maintenance
6. Sit back, monitor, make corrections, Imagon those Dragons across the galaxy

Step 7: Watch in annoyance as someone usurps control remotely
Step 8: Blame Russia, China or some other "evil" State for hacking when it was your own lax security that made this possible.
Step 9: Spend even more money to repeat the project
Step 10: Go back to step 1

 

[IMO1945]

Contrary to Pink Floyd's one album title, there's no dark side of the moon. All sides of the moon get equal sunlight, so I guess we'll see if cosmic rays will deteriorate the materials.

 

[IMO1945]

Your comments: "... there's no dark side of the moon. All sides of the moon get equal sunlight, ..." is in opposition to the answer I got from my "smartphone", which said the same face of the moon always points at the Earth because it's gravitationally "tidal locked" as it rotates around our planet; thus, there is a dark side of the moon. And, when the dark side eventually gets explored, I hope we find evidence that humankind is not alone in the cosmos.