Startups trying to build a data center on the moon to store valuable data from around the world
In April 2022, American startup
Lonestar plans to put datacenters in the Moon's lava tubes • The Register
https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/21/lonestar_moon_datacenter/
In February 2022, Lonestar announced that it had successfully tested data storage and edge computing on the ISS. In this test, Canonical 's Ubuntu virtual machine was started on a computer on the ISS, rebuilt as an edge server, an application using blockchain technology was executed, and the data was successfully sent back to the earth.
Lonestar has already raised $ 5 million from investors in a seed round , and in collaboration with NASA-sponsored aerospace company Intuitive Machines , 'software and hardware using a lunar lander. It was announced in April 2022 that it had signed a contract to conduct a 'conceptual demonstration experiment on both sides of clothing'.
This proof-of-concept experiment will include data uploads and downloads, as well as edge computing tests. At the time of writing the article, Lonestar has already obtained permission to send and receive data to and from the moon in the S band , X band , and Ka band at the stage of selecting the data communication band. The moon rotates while revolving around the earth, and the same surface always faces the earth, so 'even if you build a data center on the moon, you can always communicate with the earth,' says Lonestar. It is the cornerstone of the lunar data center plan to be established.
In this proof-of-concept experiment, it depends on whether the commercial lunar lander ' Nova-C ' developed by Intuitive Machines will succeed in landing on the moon. The lunar gravitational force and the extremely thin atmosphere require the accuracy and speed of the landing process, making it a fairly difficult mission to land Nova-C safely on the lunar surface.
According to Christopher Scott, CEO of Lonestar, Lonestar plans to launch a monthly server capable of storing 5 petabytes of data in 2024 and 50 petabytes of data in 2026. 'By the time we launch the server on the moon, we'll be able to send and receive 15Gbps-scale communications from the antenna and host data on the moon,' Scott believes.
However, in order to realize a data center on the lunar surface, it is necessary to establish a method to protect the data center from the surface temperature of the moon, which changes from minus 183 ° C to 106 ° C, and the cosmic rays that fall all the time. CEO Scott offers a solution to this problem: 'If you install it in a basaltic cave, it will stabilize the temperature and protect the server from harmful cosmic rays.'
Scott said the plan to build a lunar data center had a similar purpose to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault , which stores seeds of crop species in facilities in permafrost in case of large-scale climate change or nuclear war. is. 'The Svalbard Global Seed Vault has been flooded by the effects of climate change, and data centers on Earth are vulnerable to destructive means such as war and cyberattacks,' said Scott. It is unthinkable to leave our most valuable assets, knowledge and data, on Earth where explosions and fires are possible. We need to keep our assets on Earth in a safe place. ' Said.
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