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Posted on 10/29/2025 8:37:27 PM PDT by Red Badger
The space environment would provide natural radiative cooling, as well as unlimited solar energy.
With the generative AI boom in full force, scientists have warned of the immense power requirements of data centers used to train and utilize these systems.
Now, a team of researchers from NTU Singapore has joined the call to place data centers in space. Doing so would pave the way for sustainable computing, the claim.
According to the team, space data centers would be powered by round-the-clock solar energy and would harness free cooling. Crucially, all of this is possible using existing technologies.
Sending AI infrastructure to low Earth orbit
The NTU Singapore team proposed sending data centers to low Earth orbit (LEO). This concept would be particularly useful for island cities like Singapore, where limited land leads to high real estate costs, making data centers even more expensive.
In a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Electronics, the team described how satellites equipped with advanced processors could serve as orbital edge and cloud data centers.
Though launching data centers to space would be expensive, the LEO environment would provide two key benefits. Firstly, data centers in space would harness the effects of natural radiative cooling due to the extreme cold temperatures. On Earth, expensive cooling systems that consume enormous amounts of water are required to run data centers effectively. Secondly, operating in space would offer virtually unlimited solar energy.
The team claims these conditions would allow an orbital data center to operate with net-zero carbon emissions.
“Space offers a true sustainable environment for computing,” study lead Professor Wen Yonggang explained in a press statement. “We must dream boldly and think unconventionally, if we want to build a better future for humanity.”
“By harnessing the sun’s energy and the cold vacuum of space, orbital data centers could transform global computing,” he continued. “Our goal is to turn space into a renewable resource for humanity, expanding AI capacity without increasing carbon emissions or straining Earth’s limited land and energy resources.”
Orbital data processing
The NTU Singapore team proposed two different methods for deploying data centers in space.
The first would utilize orbital edge data centers. These would harness imaging or sensing satellites equipped with AI accelerators to process raw data in orbit. By only transmitting the essential processed information to Earth, they would reduce data transmission volumes a hundredfold, significantly lowering energy requirements.
The second method, orbital cloud data centers, would see satellite constellations fitted with servers, broadband links, solar panels, and radiative coolers. These would collectively perform advanced computing tasks from space.
The scientists claim these methods are feasible using launch and satellite technologies available today. This is important, as AI-driven computing demand is increasing at a rapid, unsustainable pace. According to a Goldman Sachs report from earlier this year, AI-driven energy demand could rise by 165 percent by 2030.
Earlier this year, former Google head Eric Schmidt told Congress that energy demand will go from 3 percent to 99 percent of total generation, due largely to rising AI demand. Schmidt, who is now CEO of Relativity Space, also claimed he acquired the launch startup to build data centers in space.
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If they built it on the moon they could use the excess heat to melt ice for the crews water.
The sun would do that.............
That would make routine maintenance of the data center a smidge harder.
CC
“This concept would be particularly useful for island cities like Singapore, where limited land leads to high real estate costs, making data centers even more expensive.”
Why not locate them in areas with abundant energy, optical lines and cooling water? With terabit low latency optical lines, you can locate them anywhere. Putting them in Singapore would be nuts. As would be having them in orbit.
Would likely have to station a crew on-site and rotate out on pre-determined intervals.
I see absolutely zero problems with this approach. /mega sarc
Get other countries on board for the mutual benefits and this could lead to minimizing, possibly eliminating warfare on Earth, as it requires cooperation in a stable milieu to work.
Too much to hope for?
China has constructed an underwater data center using seawater for cooling, and an off shore wind farm for electricity.
https://interestingengineering.com/energy/worlds-first-commercial-underwater-data-centre
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