Lonestar, a data storage and resilience company, and Phison, a semiconductor and storage firm, have launched a pioneering data center infrastructure to the moon aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. This marks the first-ever lunar data center, set to eventually hold up to a petabyte of storage. The rocket is carrying Phison’s Pascari solid-state drives (SSDs) with data from Lonestar’s clients, with the mission scheduled to land on March 4.
The concept of building a data center in space began in 2018, long before the current surge in demand driven by AI and other industries. According to Chris Stott, CEO of Lonestar, the goal was to offer a solution that stores data off Earth, providing protection from climate disasters, hacking, and other potential threats. “Data is humanity’s most precious item, outside of us,” Stott said, adding, “They see data as the new oil. I’d say it’s more precious than that.”
Lonestar’s partnership with Phison was a natural fit. Phison, known for providing storage solutions for space missions like NASA’s Perseverance Rover, collaborated with Lonestar to design SSD storage units suitable for the harsh conditions of space. These SSDs have no moving parts, making them ideal for space travel, where repairs are impossible. After years of rigorous testing, the technology was deemed ready for launch in 2023, with a successful test run conducted earlier in 2024.
The March 4 launch carries various types of customer data, including disaster recovery solutions for governments, and even a music video from the band Imagine Dragons for their Starfield soundtrack. Lonestar aims to make space-based data storage a global solution for governments, businesses, and corporations.
Lonestar isn’t alone in this venture. Lumen Orbit, now rebranded as Starcloud, also aims to bring data centers into space, having raised over $21 million in seed funding from Y Combinator’s Summer 2024 cohort.
As AI-driven hardware demands rise, space-based data centers offer significant advantages over Earth-bound facilities, including virtually unlimited storage capacity and access to solar energy. Looking ahead, Lonestar plans to collaborate with satellite manufacturer Sidus Space to launch six additional data storage spacecraft between 2027 and 2030.
Reflecting on the monumental progress, Stott remarked, “This isn’t 60 years ago with the Apollo program. Apollo flight computers had just 2 kilobytes of RAM and 36 kilobytes of storage. Now, we’re flying 1 gigabyte of RAM and 8 terabytes of storage. It’s incredible.”
