Startup wants to store Earth's important data on the Moon

[Shawn Knight]

Forward-looking: Lonestar Data Holdings isn't your ordinary cloud storage provider. The startup is quite literally looking beyond the clouds as the future destination for some of the world's most important data. Lonestar aims to one day offer clients the ability to store precious data on servers situated on the Moon. It sounds like science fiction, but the reasoning isn't all that far-fetched.

"It's inconceivable to me that we are keeping our most precious assets, our knowledge and our data, on Earth, where we're setting off bombs and burning things," said Christopher Stott, founder and CEO of Lonestar. "We need to put our assets in place off our planet, where we can keep it safe," Stott continued.

There's arguably nowhere better to store data away from Earth than the Moon. At a distance of roughly 240,000 miles away, our natural satellite is close enough to maintain constant communication with users on Earth yet far enough away to protect it from local calamities.

The Moon has its own set of challenges that Lonestar would need to overcome including fluctuating temperatures as well as cosmic and solar radiation. During the day, temps can hit upwards of 106 degrees Celsius before dipping to -183 degrees Celsius at night.

One way to circumvent these issues, Stott told The Register, would be to have robots install servers in ancient lava tubes beneath the lunar surface. Researchers believe these passageways could also be used as underground bases for lunar colonies, shielding inhabitants from micrometeorite impacts and other space-based hazards.

The startup hopes to conduct its first software-based test later this year before sending its own hardware to the Moon in 2024.

Image credit: NASA, Donald Giannatti

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/94688-startup-wants-store-earth-important-data-moon.html

 

[punctualturn]

Well, if Amazon Glacier restore speed and prices are bad, imagine a restore of that data!

 

[DZillaXx]

Oh look, another startup with big dreams that will burn through cash like crazy and fall apart after the money runs out.

Honestly the infrastructure just isn't there yet, This is easily 10-20years too early for a company like this to start investing in this type of technology.

SpaceX easily has another decade to go before they can be part of the supply chain to a location that far away. Their entire business is still low orbit.

And lets be real, I don't see anyone catching up to SpaceX in the next decade.


Better storage medium is going to be of great importance over the next decade or so. HDD's are starting to see a brick wall, while SSD tech is finding ways to greatly increase storage space per dollar. We need a better way to store long term data, that doesn't involve a crap ton of power keeping iron spinning.

 

[Dd663]

If it ever gets to the point where data is safe on the moon but not the earth, I don't think anyone will be around who cares that data exists anymore.

 

[Lounds]

This start up is DOA.

 

[Plutoisaplanet]

If it ever gets to the point where data is safe on the moon but not the earth, I don't think anyone will be around who cares that data exists anymore.

Not only that, but if there are aliens, then even 5000 years after extinction there’ll be no notable trace of humanity on Earth anymore—think about the pyramids. Building something large enough on the moon (assuming it doesn’t get damaged by asteroids) is the best way to become noticeable at any point in the not near future. This is especially true considering the moon has basically no atmosphere, so structures should be well preserved.

 

[Sathi43]

... is close enough to maintain constant communication with users on Earth...

Here I was thinking this must be some cold storage like Voyager Golden Record. With constant connection with earth, what would stop it from being the holy grail target for hackers.?

 

[Dd663]

Not only that, but if there are aliens, then even 5000 years after extinction there’ll be no notable trace of humanity on Earth anymore—think about the pyramids. Building something large enough on the moon (assuming it doesn’t get damaged by asteroids) is the best way to become noticeable at any point in the not near future. This is especially true considering the moon has basically no atmosphere, so structures should be well preserved.

Maybe Chairface Chippendale was on to something.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

I actually imagined something like this because I got the idea from Babylon 5’s super computer built into the planet it orbits.

What they need ultimately is a moon base. You can transfer information from earth to the moon using communication satellites or using direct transmission. The other possibility is that you can make copies of important files and then transport them to the moon using rockets and upload them to the data center.


And why stop there? We should exile our worst criminals to the moon and force them to dig tunnels for expansion of the moon base just like they did in Total Recall. If they refuse to work they don’t get food or oxygen. Depriving them of oxygen is a great motivator. An even better motivator is threatening to space them.

 

[VitalyT]

"It's inconceivable to me that we are keeping our most precious assets, our knowledge and our data, on Earth, where we're setting off bombs and burning things,"

It's an old earth tradition, *****, one that we will pick up on the moon just as we settle there.

There won't be a planet in our solar system we won't take a dump on, trust me!

 

[QuaZulu]

I actually imagined something like this because I got the idea from Babylon 5’s super computer built into the planet it orbits.

What they need ultimately is a moon base. You can transfer information from earth to the moon using communication satellites or using direct transmission. The other possibility is that you can make copies of important files and then transport them to the moon using rockets and upload them to the data center.


And why stop there? We should exile our worst criminals to the moon and force them to dig tunnels for expansion of the moon base just like they did in Total Recall. If they refuse to work they don’t get food or oxygen. Depriving them of oxygen is a great motivator. An even better motivator is threatening to space them.

"That's no moon!"

 

[Aaron Jones]

I'm almost absolutely sure that any "calamity" of sufficient-enough magnitude to destroy our important Earth-bound data (like our collection of knowledge on Chemistry and Physics) will be more than enough to also destroy every piece of equipment needed to communicate with whatever we install on the Moon.

 

[yannus]

I'm almost absolutely sure that any "calamity" of sufficient-enough magnitude to destroy our important Earth-bound data (like our collection of knowledge on Chemistry and Physics) will be more than enough to also destroy every piece of equipment needed to communicate with whatever we install on the Moon.

That sounds funny : "We need the back up to know how to access it !"