Astronomers Are Eyeing SpaceX Plans for 1M Data Center Satellites With Concern
Astronomers are viewing SpaceX's plans for a constellation of up to 1 million solar-powered data center satellites with concern about what it could mean for space sustainability and safe space operations. "That's just too many satellites to look after," said Hugh Lewis, an astronautics professor in the space environment and radio engineering research group at the U.K.'s University of Birmingham.
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In an FCC Space Bureau application posted late Friday, SpaceX said the satellites operating as data center nodes "is a first step towards becoming a Kardashev II-level civilization -- one that can harness the Sun’s full power -- while supporting AI-driven applications for billions of people today and ensuring humanity’s multi-planetary future amongst the stars." The satellites would operate at altitudes between 500 and 2,000 kilometers and rely "nearly exclusively on high-bandwidth optical links for communications." The company said the constellation's continuous access to solar power would let it meet its energy needs without relying on terrestrial grids, "enabling scalable, reliable, and sustainable AI growth."
SpaceX also said the system would use its "advanced, automated collision avoidance system for low-latency risk assessment and response, as well as agile and highly-reliable electric propulsion systems that enable precise and efficient maneuvers." Its space sustainability designs and operational strategies have resulted in reliability in excess of 99% across its nearly 10,000 Starlink satellites, the company added.
Bloomberg reported Monday that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk merged SpaceX with his AI tech company, xAI, ahead of SpaceX's expected initial public offering. In its FCC filing, SpaceX said its data center constellation is intended to "power advanced artificial intelligence models and the applications that rely on them."
"A constellation of such brobdingnagian proportions will without fail spark a regulatory outcry," Quilty Space's Caleb Henry emailed us. SpaceX probably expects to get partial approval that allows a tiny fraction of the constellation to go forward, he said. Henry predicted that other satellite operators won't follow suit with their own regulatory filings in the near future, since SpaceX's might not trigger a processing round at the FCC. The data center constellation is mainly optical, with backhaul through the already licensed Starlink broadband constellation, he said. Other operators "may choose to keep their operations in stealth mode until deemed necessary to disclose." There are at least half a dozen orbital data center startups, including Starcloud (formerly Lumen Orbit), LeoCloud and Axiom Space, he noted.
Henry also said that whether SpaceX's proposed orbital data center efforts are realistic or not "is a huge debate within the space industry." Musk "is known for taking on projects others thought impossible, and wielding them with great technological and commercial success." With reusable rockets and low earth orbit broadband constellations "fall[ing] squarely within what many thought impossible, orbital data centers could be Musk’s hat-trick victory," Henry added.
SpaceX's plans for a constellation of up to 1 million solar-powered data center satellites "is not just hype for a potential fundraiser," Mach33 CEO Aaron Burnett wrote Saturday on social media. Space consultant Carlos Placido wrote that SpaceX's plans could turn orbit "into a computing & networking powerhouse. Mega-constellations + on-orbit AI = a mind-blowing leap in scale and speed."
Lewis told us that in the upper altitudes of the data center constellation's orbit, failed satellites could remain there for thousands of years. Even if the constellation meets NASA's goal of a 99.9% success rate for post-mission disposals, he said, that's still 1,000 satellites that can't be discarded safely.
"To pull this off, they're going to need extremely high reliability and a lot of luck," said astrophysicist and orbital debris expert Jonathan McDowell, who retired from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics’ Chandra X-ray Observatory. Along with the orbital debris and safe space operational challenges, the proposed constellation could make ground-based astronomy more difficult with large numbers of large satellites that, at particularly high altitudes, will be illuminated by the sun later into the night than Starlinks, McDowell said.
Lewis also argued that SpaceX's move to lower roughly 4,800 satellites orbiting at about 550 kilometers to about 480 kilometers for greater safety (see 2601020014) points to the company's difficulty in keeping the satellites safe. "So why would they think they can keep a million satellites safe?" The intergovernmental Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee and regulators around the world undoubtedly will closely scrutinize SpaceX's plans, he added.