Julio Friedman, chief scientist at Carbon Direct, warned a captive audience to “proceed with caution” regarding space-based data centers (SBDCs) during a talk at the Press Building on Monday. The event, hosted by the Precourt Institute of Energy, summarized an upcoming report about the dangers of space-based data centers.
Friedman spoke alongside David Sandalow, inaugural fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, and Roger Aines, the former energy program chief scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The trio, along with a few other scientists, has spent the last few months researching the scientific and social implications of sending data centers into space.
Sending data centers into space doesn’t actually mean sending a large megaton computer into orbit. According to Sandalow, a single SBDC will consist of “approximately 10,000 satellites, orbiting in a constellation.” These satellites would all communicate with each other to avoid collisions and operate as a singular, large data center. They would orbit along the terminator — the line that separates dusk and dawn — and “as a result, have access to 24/7 solar power,” as Sandalow explained. The swarms of satellites would have to be in Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) to stay close enough to devices on Earth and avoid lag.
Scientists are developing SBDCs to address the rising need for compute, the processing power required to run large AI models. By 2030, “700 large launches a year are going to be required to put roughly 10% of projected global AI compute in space,” Sandalow said. This year, SpaceX has launched under 120 rockets. All three presenters warned that innovation and development without extensive testing would lead to several problems.
“The American Astronomical Society says that with the larger climate of these constellations, you will see more satellites than stars in a nice sky, particularly [at] dawn and dusk,” Sandalow said. “There is a very significant risk of cascading collisions [that] might render portion[s] of the lower orbit unusable for communication satellites or other types of uses in use.”
Sandalow also warned that a sudden increase in rocket launches and landings could re-threaten the ozone layer, which has recovered tremendously under the Montreal Protocol, an international treaty that phased out ozone-depleting substances like chlorofluorocarbons.
“Aluminum oxides and the soot are particularly bad because those create surfaces for the surface chemistry that destroys the ozone,” Friedman said, detailing the effects of two emittants released by rocket launches.
Sandalow also emphasized the importance of energy, as it’s “at the core of so many aspects of human life,” he said in an interview with The Daily. “[I’ve] seen students paying very close attention to global warming threats, because I think that’s going to make a huge difference in our ability to solve this problem.”
Arpita Kalra, director of marketing and engagement at the Precourt Institute of Energy, said the institute hosts these events to expose students to diverse perspectives. “We organize a lot of these seminars, and most of our seminars are open to the public,” Kalra said. The Precourt Institute of Energy organizes roughly 200 events a year, according to Kalra.
Cheng Ma, a visiting political science and anthropology researcher from Berlin, said he found the event “quite interesting.” He attended the talk to stay informed on conversations concerning data center development. “We still talk about different [geopolitical] boundaries[except] now it’s space,” he said, describing space as a new frontier in international development.
Sandalow emphasized the importance of staying informed, especially for students. “[Energy] is a multigenerational problem. So we need the younger generation really focused on this issue,” he said.