Sana Pashankar and Loren Grush
SpaceX is requesting permission to launch as many as 1 million satellites into the Earth’s orbit in order to pull off Elon Musk’s latest grand vision of putting data centers in space to do complex computing for artificial intelligence.
In a filing with the Federal Communications Commission made late Friday, SpaceX said it’s creating the solar-powered network in order to “accommodate the explosive growth of data demands driven by AI.”
“Launching a constellation of a million satellites that operate as orbital data centres is a first step towards becoming a Kardashev II-level civilisation — 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,” SpaceX wrote in the filing.
The system, which could be launched via the company’s reusable Starship rocket, would serve as a lower-cost and more environmentally friendly alternative to land-based data centres, the filing states.
Instead of requiring cooling systems that use large volumes of water like those on land, the network would rely on radiative cooling that occurs in space, which allows for the dissipation of heat. It would also reduce the need to rely on batteries, since it would acquire energy from the sun, according to the filing.
Musk responded to reports of the filing on X early Saturday morning, stating “I thought we’d start small and work our way up”.
The satellites, which will use laser links to communicate with each other, will be launched between an altitude of 500 km (310.69 miles) and 2,000 km in an orbit that would provide them near constant access to the sun, according to the filing.
The FCC request comes as SpaceX, which is eyeing an IPO later this year, is exploring a potential merger with Musk’s xAI, a tie-up that would consolidate cash flow while bringing together capabilities in artificial intelligence, satellite production and rocket launches, Bloomberg has reported. SpaceX is also considering an alternative combination with Tesla Inc.
Musk has publicly spoken about the need for orbital data centres and his companies’ ambitions to pioneer the technology, most recently at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“It’s a no-brainer for building AI data centres in space,” Musk said at the forum. “The lowest cost place to put AI will be space, and that’ll be true within two years, maybe three at the latest.”
Bloomberg
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