Arizona city rejects water-hungry data center

Tucson rejected Project Blue, a 290-acre data center that would drain local drinking water during a drought. The city council voted no, and Amazon Web Services pulled out.

“We need to put data centers where they belong. We don't think data centers belong in the desert.”

Tech giants are looking to space instead

Google, Meta, and SpaceX are seriously exploring orbital data centers to escape the gridlock of terrestrial opposition, environmental concerns, and 12-year power grid delays.

Google's pilot satellite launches next week

Google plans to launch a pilot satellite capable of processing basic AI queries into orbit, marking the most significant test yet in the race to power AI from space.

SpaceX promises massive orbital infrastructure

SpaceX's IPO was predicated on launching orbital data centers by 2028, with plans to harvest 100 gigawatts of solar energy annually for AI, equivalent to one-fifth of all US electricity consumption.

Space data centers cost three times more

Building a one-gigawatt data center in space costs about 51.5 billion dollars, compared with 16 billion dollars on land, according to aerospace engineer Andrew McCalip.

Engineers say the physics works out

Space systems engineer Jason Aspiotis says orbital data centers don't break any laws of physics and engineering challenges are solvable with time and money. The real question is economics.

“They're not breaking any rules of physics. Yes, there are going to be engineering challenges, but they are all solvable with enough time and money.”

How orbital data centers would work

Orbital data centers would use solar power and massive heat radiators to stay cool, but would need to be assembled piece by piece in space by robots since they'd rival the International Space Station in size.

Space radiation threatens delicate circuits

Constant radiation in orbit would damage sensitive computer equipment, and if something breaks, technicians can't simply travel to fix it like they can on Earth.

Space junk could destroy critical satellites

Millions of orbital data centers would create catastrophic debris that could collide with GPS, weather satellites, and other infrastructure we depend on, potentially making low Earth orbit unusable.

Early orbital data centers may serve space

Aerospace experts believe the first orbital data centers will likely process data from space, like satellite imagery or weather data, rather than power AI queries for Earth users.

“Even plastic decays in space.”

AI is the deepest-pocketed customer

Even if AI isn't the best use case for orbital computing, it's the most lucrative, so investors and companies are willing to shoulder massive startup costs anyway.

Virginia politician defends Earth data centers

David Reid, representing Loudoun County which hosts more data centers than anywhere on Earth, calls orbital data centers fictional nonsense and says local officials need better zoning decisions instead.

“I believe this is, for lack of a better term, fictional nonsense.”

Millions of satellites would transform night sky

Powering AI from space would require millions of new satellites in orbit, potentially replacing visible stars with artificial lights and fundamentally altering humanity's relationship with the night sky.

Astronomers worry about losing the stars

Astronomer John Barentine asks whether people will accept artificial stars replacing natural ones, even if they get the benefits of AI-powered technology.

“Will humanity notice if there are fewer stars in the sky? Well, not so much right now.”

Space won't fix Earth's real problems

Even if space data centers succeed, energy bills will remain high, affordable housing and transit will be just as hard to build, and crucial resources will escape Earth's reach.

Tech giants escape accountability again

If these companies succeed, they'll prove once again their exemption from the constraints holding the rest of us down, avoiding the difficult work of building better systems on Earth.