At what point in our journey will we shift data centers and data storage to the stratosphere? Would it make sense to pursue sustainability initiatives that move the physical location of a datacenter to space? While this might sound far-fetched or the realm of science fiction, it’s a reasonable question to ask, and I’m not the only one. Companies like Western Digital, Hewlett Packard and Orbits Edge are taking steps to make this a reality.
Could Data Storage in the Stratosphere Reduce Energy Consumption and our Carbon Footprint?
The New Space Age is guiding us toward a permanent presence on the moon and near earth orbit space travel for civilians is coming, so why not move data storage to the sphere? Could data access improve, and could this potentially accelerate distributed and decentralized data storage? This would have a significant benefit for everyone (though not to blindly ignore the risks here).
This “Space as a Service” concept can be used for operating multi-tenant hardware in a micro-colocation model or offering virtual server capacity for “above the clouds” computing. Several space startups are integrating micro-data centers into their designs, offering computing power to process satellite imaging data or monitor distributed sensors for Internet of Things (IoT) applications – Doug Mahoney, Data Center Frontiers
Satellite Image over the Earth, Cr: Getty Images
HP deployed a datacenter to the ISS in February 2021, a set of HPE Edgeline Converged EL4000 Edge and HPE ProLiant machines, each with an Nvidia T4 GPU to support AI workloads. While this is far from a commercially available solution for the masses, the implications are clear. Let’s not call it a POC as much as we can consider it feasible, viable and highly likely to continue on this trajectory.
The video below is not illustrating, or in any way related to a data storage project. It’s purely meant to spark your imagination and the possibility of moving data storage further into the atmosphere. Our ability to be captured by our imaginations and inspired to take action is what’s gotten us this far.
Questions to ask and answer
In the spirit of design thinking, let’s ask for a moment “how might we achieve a data storage solution in the earth’s atmosphere?”.
Why should we, and what would be the benefit?
What are the alternatives?
Who would use it, and of course, how much would it cost?
Scenarios and Possible Solutions
To continue with the notion of embracing the ‘art of the possible’, it’s worth taking the time to explore the implications of this type of thought – exercise. Consider the enabling capability of data storage, capture and analysis within the stratosphere.
- Disaster prediction, monitoring and alerting – could you more accurately predict and prevent catastrophe’s caused by natural disasters such as earthquakes or hurricanes?
- Disaster relief efforts are targeted with greater precision and accuracy following a natural disaster
- Space Debris monitoring or cleanup, or space traffic management solutions
- A solar powered orbiting data center that leverages a network of satellites and relays to distribute data for access regardless of air to ground orientation.
- A reduced carbon footprint on the planet is achieved by allowing data center management to operate in low earth orbit
- Quantum computing and processing power in space to focus on critical resource infrastructure solutions like water, food, healthcare and the grid.
- Data storage could become subsidized by both private and public investment funds and accelerate data access equity via Digital Public Infrastructure initiatives
Strategies to Consider
According to Orbits Edge and HP in their combined published case study the strategy is to build a “hardened computing platform that can survive and thrive in harsh conditions.
Empowering organizations to accelerate their time to reach space by 3-5 years, or by improving the ability for space to reach us by capturing more data that is currently lost because we simply can’t retrieve it all from satellite missions.
A paradigm shift in the concept of edge computing and harnessing raw data, performing data synthesis, and analyzing atmospheric conditions between ours and nearby celestial bodies will inform new developments in interplanetary travel, as well as an ability to better correlate activity on earth as it relates to our position in space. New developments in manufacturing for space travel would also be inevitable and open up new industries.
A little bit of Nostalgia
I remember when I was a kid and first saw Star Wars in the 1970’s, and then shortly thereafter watching Star Trek, The Motion Picture. While watching the opening sequence where Scotty gives Kirk a tour around the Enterprise when I space dock–I recall thinking to myself (this scene is going on forever), and then thinking to myself this is incredible! Where Star Wars had succeeded in space fantasy, this one opening sequence had succeed in permanently embedding an image of inhabiting space as a reality.
Amazon AWS is taking the challenge and problem seriously as well and moving into the satellite business to help alleviate the challenges with edge computing and data bottlenecks as they relay back to earth. If Amazon can pioneer the path forward for ground-station data access and make it available to build on top of, leverage and innovate, others will soon follow suit, making it a commercially viable solution – hopefully in a near term time-horizon.
Credits, Sources and Resources
The Datasphere project
Space and Time – Decentralized Data warehouse
Western Digital – Data centers on the moon
Data Center Frontiers – Data above the clouds
One Giant Leap for Edge Computing – HPE + Orbits Edge
