Krishna Muralidharan weighs in on orbiting data centers
Cubesats, or small satellites, could perform as data centers in Earth's orbit.
NASA
Arizona Public Media spoke to Krishna Muralidharan, professor of MSE, about the possibility of building data centers that operate in outer space.
Muralidharan explained that satellites of various sizes could store data safely in space without impacting natural resources on Earth.
"It’s not one data center, we probably would have more satellites, nano-satellites, and in different orbits as well, depending on how important the data is,” he said.
Muralidharan added that such satellites will need to be built to withstand radiation and the other hazards of an outer space environment. They would also need to be launched high enough to avoid the growing issue of space debris in low Earth orbit.
The data satellites would run on solar power and could be placed into orbits that guarantee storage for generations.