SpaceX filed a request with the FCC on Friday seeking approval to place a constellation of 1 million data center satellites into orbit. Whereas the FCC is unlikely to approve a community that expansive, SpaceX’s technique has been to request approval for unrealistically giant numbers of satellites as a starting point for negotiations.
The submitting proposes establishing a community of solar-powered information facilities in low Earth orbit that talk with each other by way of lasers. The filling speaks of the constellation in formidable sci-fi phrases, calling it a “first step in direction of changing into a Kardashev II-level civilization — one that may harness the Solar’s full energy.”
Even when only a small fraction of these a million satellites wind up in orbit, it could mark a big improve within the variety of man-made objects in area. The European House Company estimates there are round 15,000 satellites orbiting the Earth in the intervening time, and the bulk are Starlink. (Over 9,600 of them, based on Johnathan’s Space Report.)
When consultants are already involved concerning the abundance of space junk and potential for orbital collisions, such an explosion of objects in orbit would appear ill-advised. However SpaceX argues that the orbital information facilities could be a less expensive and extra environmentally pleasant various to land-based facilities that kind the spine of the rising AI business. As an alternative of syphoning water from communities, polluting groundwater, and driving up electricity bills, orbital information facilities would be capable of radiate warmth into the vacuum of area and rely nearly completely on real-time solar energy and restricted batteries.
The backlash towards information facilities has been growing, and communities are increasingly winning their battles to dam their development. So it’s no shock that the largest names in AI are turning their attention to one of many few locations the place there isn’t a group to upset.
Correction January thirty first: An earlier model of this text said that there have been over 11,000 Starlink satellites in orbit. That quantity was the overall launched, together with satellites that had been decommissioned. This has been corrected to mirror what number of Starlink satellites are presently lively in orbit.
