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datum reposition and resilience companyLonestarand semiconductor unit and reposition companyPhisonlaunched a data centre base on a SpaceX skyrocket on Wednesday that ’s headed to the moon .
The companies are sending Phison ’s Pascari storage — substantial country drives ( SSDs ) built for data centers — pack with Lonestar ’s customer ’ data on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket go down to Edwin Herbert Land on March 4 . This marks the beginning of a lunar information center , the first ever , that the companies plan to expound in the futurity until it hold a petabyte of repositing .
Chris Stott , the beginner , chairperson , and CEO of Lonestar , say TechCrunch that the idea to construct a data center in outer space originated back in 2018 — years before the current AI - aim spate in data nub requirement . He said customer were assay ways to hive away their data off Earth so it would be immune from matter like mood disaster and hacking .
“ Humanity ’s most wanted particular , outside of us , is data , ” Stott say . “ They see data as the new oil . I ’d say it ’s more precious than that . ”
Stott said partnering with Phison to progress a blank data center was a natural selection . Phison already provides reposition solutions for blank missions through NASA ’s Perseverance Rover on Mars . The company also offers a aim Robert William Service name Imagine Plus , which develops custom depot solutions for alone undertaking .
“ We were very worked up when there ’s a call from Chris , ” Michael Wu , the ecumenical coach and president of Phison , told TechCrunch . “ We took a received product and were able to customize whatever they need for these product and we launch it . So it ’s a very exciting journeying . ”
Lonestar partnered with Phison in 2021 , and since then , they have been developing SSD storage units designed for outer space . Stott added that the companies drop years testing the merchandise before their first launch because the technical school has to be stone substantial — it ca n’t easily be fixed if an government issue rise .
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“ [ This is ] why SSDs are so of import , ” Stott said . “ No go parts . It ’s singular technology that ’s allowing us to do what we ’re doing for these governments and hopefully almost every government in the world as we go forward and almost every fellowship and corporation . ”
Stott say the tech has been launch - quick since 2023 and the party successfully conducted a test launch in other 2024 .
Wednesday ’s launch included various types of customer data , ranging from multiple governments concerned in disaster recuperation to a space agency essay a enceinte language model . Even the band Imagine Dragons enter , post a euphony video for one of their songs from the Starfield space game soundtrack .
Lonestar is n’t the only society looking to wreak information plaza into space . Another competition , Lumen Orbit , come forth from Y Combinator ’s Summer 2024 batch . The inauguration garnered one of thebuzziest come roundsfrom that YC cohort , elevate more than$21 million and rebranding as Starcloud .
As AI - ram demand for hardware accelerates , it ’s belike we ’ll see more companies quest after space - based storage solution , which put up nearly numberless storage capacity and solar energy , advantages that Earth - adhere information center ca n’t match .
For Lonestar , if all goes well , the company plan to collaborate with satellite manufacturer Sidus Space to build six data storage space vehicle that the company expects to launch between 2027 and 2030 .
“ It ’s entrancing to see the level of professionalism , it is tremendous , ” Stott said . “ This is n’t 60 years ago with the Apollo curriculum . Apollo flight computers , they had 2 kilobytes of RAM and they had 36 kibibyte of warehousing . Here we are on this mission , flying 1 Gigabyte of RAM and 8 terabytes of storage with Phison Pascari . It ’s tremendous . ”
