Interest is growing rapidly<\/p>\n
\u201cThe amount of momentum from heavyweights in the tech industry is very much worth paying attention to,\u201d said Caleb Henry, director of research at Quilty Space, in an interview. \u201cIf they start putting money behind it, we could see another transformation of what\u2019s done in space.\u201d<\/p>\n
The essential function of a data center is to store, process, and transmit data. Historically, satellites have already done a lot of this, Henry said. Telecommunications satellites specialize in transmitting data. Imaging satellites store a lot of data and then dump it when they pass over ground stations. In recent years, onboard computers have gotten more sophisticated at processing data. Data centers in space could represent the next evolution of that.<\/p>\n
Critics rightly note that it would require very large satellites with extensive solar panels to power data centers that rival ground-based infrastructure. However, SpaceX\u2019s Starlink V3 satellites are unlike any previous space-based technology, Henry said.<\/p>\n
A lot more capacity<\/p>\n
SpaceX\u2019s current Starlink V2 mini satellites have a maximum downlink capacity of approximately 100 Gbps. The V3 satellite is expected to increase this capacity by a factor of 10, to 1 Tbps. This is not unprecedented in satellite capacity, but it certainly is at scale.<\/p>\n