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Over the past year or so, a puzzling idea has taken hold among billionaires ranging from Elon Musk to Jeff Bezos: that instead of trying to force data centers on communities that don\u2019t want them down on Earth, it would be much easier just to launch them into space.<\/p>\n
The economics<\/a> and logistics<\/a> of the scheme, many experts have pointed out, are absolutely absurd. And even beyond those practical concerns, if corporations actually did somehow manage to fill the planet\u2019s orbit with the facilities, scientists are now warning that the environmental cost would be devastating.<\/p>\n A new petition<\/a> organized by the group EarthJustice, first reported by the Guardian<\/a>, is warning of \u201ccatastrophic\u201d consequences for the planet if the billionaire-backed dream ever came to pass. The 29-page petition calls on the US Federal Communications Commission to investigate current orbital data center licensing requests as potentially in violation of \u201cfederal law,\u201d joining the chorus of experts<\/a> warning that it\u2019s a horrible idea for just about everybody.<\/p>\n \u201cThe FCC is currently considering multiple requests for licensing extraordinary numbers of satellite-based data centers to be placed into low-earth orbit over the next decade,\u201d the petition begins. \u201cThe proponents of these proposals describe their plans in grandiose, civilization-changing terms. But these same proponents have refused to embrace any inquiry into the impacts of their self claimed epochal technology on the environment, science, economy, or other values. This is not just poor planning and a missed opportunity: it violates federal law.\u201d<\/p>\n The filing does double duty. On top of formally petitioning the FCC to prepare an environmental assessment<\/a>, it\u2019s also a \u201cpetition to deny,\u201d which is a legal mechanism that requires the petitioner to back up their claims with verified facts. That requirement turns the document into a de facto review article<\/a> \u2014 with 113 footnote citations, it\u2019s easily one of the most detailed public accounts yet of what orbital data centers could actually cost the planet.<\/p>\n \u201cThe operation of more than a million data center satellites threatens potentially catastrophic forms and quantities of atmospheric pollution, risking damage to the climate, to the ozone layer, to human health, and to the chemistry of the stratosphere itself,\u201d the petition reads.<\/p>\n In particular, the petition warns that giving free rein to tech billionaires to clutter our skies with experimental data centers would accelerate our contamination of the stratosphere, which is currently facing an unprecedented rise<\/a> in heavy metals, noxious gasses, and carbon particles thanks to record satellite launches.<\/p>\n