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Reusable Rockets Key to Deploying Space Data Centers

With SpaceX scheduled for its IPO on the 12th, the company revealed in its listing prospectus a plan to deploy 1 million space data centers, operating at a total capacity of 100 gigawatts (GW).

SpaceX to Begin Manned Spacecraft Production. SpaceX

According to SpaceX's IPO prospectus, one of the company's core businesses is space data centers. This involves storing data on satellites orbiting in space and retrieving it as needed. The data centers will be powered by solar energy, while laser optical communication will be used for data transmission and reception.

The greatest advantage of space data centers is their ability to generate their own power. Unlike on Earth, where factors such as weather and humidity impact performance, the vacuum of space allows solar panels of the same size to produce up to eight times more energy. By orbiting along a dawn-dusk sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), it is possible to generate and supply energy to the data centers continuously throughout the day.

A single nuclear power plant produces 1 GW of electricity, so if 1 million space data centers are deployed, it would eliminate the need to build 100 nuclear power plants on Earth.

The extremely low temperature of space is another advantage. According to research from the University of Cambridge in the UK, data centers release enough heat to raise the local ground temperature by an average of about 2 degrees Celsius. If data centers are located in cold space, it is expected that heat can be managed more easily. However, even with lower temperatures, cooling cannot be achieved as easily as on Earth. Since space is a vacuum with no medium to transfer heat, dedicated radiators must be installed to dissipate heat through radiation, instead of convection and conduction.

SpaceX IPO Plan. The Asia Business Daily DB

The 'AI Sat Mini' unveiled by SpaceX is a data center with a 100-kilowatt (approximately 0.0001 GW) capacity, and the plan is to equip it with solar panels of 900 square meters and a radiator of about 100 square meters. To generate 1 GW of electricity, the required panel area would be 4–5 square kilometers, which is about 1.5 times the size of Yeouido (2.9 km²). To overcome these limitations, SpaceX is conducting research and development on technologies such as perovskite-structured solar cells, which absorb light using semiconductor materials.

Protecting key data center components such as high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and graphics processing units (GPU) from space radiation is also critical. According to Google experiments, using 10 mm thick aluminum can successfully block radiation for up to 5 years. However, the research also found that HBM is the most vulnerable to space radiation.

To effectively utilize space data centers, fast and reliable data transmission technology between space and the ground is essential. Locating data centers in low Earth orbit (LEO), closer to the surface, can help minimize latency. High-capacity data is transmitted using laser optical communication, which consumes less power and, with its narrower wavelength, can send more data than radio communication. However, laser optical communication has a limited transmission range, requiring precise targeting.

Reusable rockets from SpaceX, such as the Starship, are expected to play a crucial role in deploying 1 million data centers in space. SpaceX has already launched 22 satellites, including 20 mock satellites and 2 Starlink satellites, into orbit at once with the 'Starship V3.'

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.