[Starlink] DataCenters in Space (was Re: fiber IXPs in space)

[Hesham ElBakoury]

Yves Durand is the director of technology at Thales Alenia Space, the joint
venture charged with studying the feasibility of space data centers, with
the goal of deploying them in the early 2030s.

The article I sent before says: "Durand doesn’t doubt the viability of
building a data center in space, and says that construction will be “fully
automated – no astronauts. In fact, the project involves development of
special, robotic assembly technology.” A founding principle is to design a
modular facility with electronic components that can be easily transported
on a reusable space shuttles. Unlike terrestrial, fiber-based communication
facilities, the data centers in space will use optical technology."

Hesham

On Wed, Apr 19, 2023, 6:16 PM Vint Cerf via Starlink <
starlink at lists.bufferbloat.net> wrote:

> O&M will be a bear
> v
>
>
> On Wed, Apr 19, 2023 at 9:13 PM Tom Evslin via Starlink <
> starlink at lists.bufferbloat.net> wrote:
>
>> I think space-based data centers will be the rule rather than the
>> exception. Wrote about that a couple of years ago although, as usual,
>> things have not happened as quickly as I predicted
>> https://blog.tomevslin.com/2021/07/computing-clouds-in-orbit-a-possible-roadmap.html
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Starlink <starlink-bounces at lists.bufferbloat.net> On Behalf Of
>> Michael Richardson via Starlink
>> Sent: Wednesday, April 19, 2023 7:35 PM
>> To: starlink <starlink at lists.bufferbloat.net>; e-impact at ietf.org
>> Subject: [Starlink] DataCenters in Space (was Re: fiber IXPs in space)
>>
>>
>> I saw this reported in BIS-Spaceflight.
>> (I'm usually a few months behind in reading it) I like the "first
>> objective"!
>>
>>
>> https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/worldwide/space/press-release/ascend-thales-alenia-space-lead-european-feasibility-study-data
>>
>> Cannes, November 14, 2022 – Thales Alenia Space, the joint company
>> between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), has been chosen by the European
>> Commission to lead the ASCEND (Advanced Space Cloud for European Net zero
>> emission and Data sovereignty) feasibility study for data centers in orbit,
>> as part of Europe’s vast Horizon Europe research program.
>>
>> Digital technology’s expanding environmental footprint is becoming a major
>> challenge: the burgeoning need for digitalization means that data centers
>> in Europe and around the world are growing at an exponential pace, which in
>> turn has a critical energy and environmental impact.
>>
>> The first objective of this study will be to assess if the carbon
>> emissions from the production and launch of these space infrastructures
>> will be significantly lower than the emissions generated by ground-based
>> data centers, therefore contributing to the achievement of global carbon
>> neutrality. The second objective will be to prove that it is possible to
>> develop the required launch solution and to ensure the deployment and
>> operability of these spaceborne data centers using robotic assistance
>> technologies currently being developed in Europe, such as the EROSS IOD
>> demonstrator.
>>
>> This project is expected to demonstrate to which extent space-based data
>> centers would limit the energy and environmental impact of their ground
>> counterparts, thus allowing major investments within the scope of Europe’s
>> Green Deal, possibly justifying the development of a more climate-friendly,
>> reusable heavy launch vehicle. Europe could thus regain its leadership in
>> space transport and space logistics, as well as the assembly and operations
>> of large infrastructures in orbit.
>>
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>
>
> --
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