The cost model covers two 1-Gigawatt SBDC architectures and benchmarks their costs against terrestrial data centers. Three key economic barriers are identified: Cost of data centre core IT hardware, lifespan of the IT hardware under space radiation, and launch affordability. With the expected advancements in launch costs, radiation hardness and cost of IT hardware, SBDCs can offer an economically viable alternative to terrestrial solutions.
Then the question comes naturally: what is Europe's stance on the matter?
"The vision of Space Based Data Centers (SBDCs) is ambitious and forward-looking, but also a promising one. As we move into a world where AI is taking center stage in the global economy, there is mounting evidence that we will need new solutions for energy generation across the planet. Google has recently released a white paper on SBDCs. Jeff Bezos has predicted that space-based centers at gigawatt scale could become a reality within our lifetimes, perhaps in 10 to 20 years. A similar sentiment has been echoed by Elon Musk, who has indicated that SpaceX will be moving in the direction of SBDCs. Then the question comes naturally: what is Europe's stance on the matter?
Space is rapidly transitioning from the era of missions, that is one-off or recurring projects with a defined start and end, to the era of infrastructure. If you wish, this mirrors the evolution on Earth from simple roads to integrated highway networks and the broad ecosystem of services that followed. Infrastructure is a massive undertaking that requires continuous maintenance and upgrades. Frequent and low-cost access to space is therefore a key driver for enabling such large-scale infrastructure. While the United States prepare for this new eara, we in Europe are not standing still. By focusing our efforts strategically we can become leaders in some challenging technology niche of this vision.
We foresee SBDCs as a catalyst for rapid growth in the space sector and as a means to generate tangible impact for human development and the expansion of human civilization in space. Our collaboration between the TUM Chair of Spacecraft Systems and the European Space Policy Institute was intended to provide an evaluation of costs and a quantitative perspective to address the technical challenges, which are indeed significant and require substantial capital investment. We view SBDCs as an ambitious target worth aiming for, fully cognizant of the technical hurdles and the long road ahead before such a vision can ultimately be realized," said Prof. Alessandro Golkar.
“Space-based data centres could fundamentally transform how we process data, manage energy, and maintain digital sovereignty,” said Jermaine Gutierrez, ESPI Research Fellow and lead author of the report.
Link to ESPI report: Data centres in space: orbital backbone of the second digital era?