orbital data center

An orbital data center is essentially a ground-based data center relocated entirely to space. Computer servers are placed inside a satellite, and that satellite handles AI computation instead of a building on Earth.

Ground-based data centers spend a lot of money bringing in electricity and cooling down servers that heat up. The core idea behind this business is that in orbit, sunlight can be converted directly into electricity, and the cold vacuum of space can help dissipate heat. The hope is that the same computation could be done at lower cost than on the ground.

But actually launching a satellite carrying servers into space is a separate problem. Even a well-built satellite is stuck on the ground if it can't secure a slot on a rocket, and it also needs special design to block radiation and withstand the shock of launch.

In articles, the term is used to refer to specific satellite projects, as in "plans to advance development of the orbital data center satellite 'Starcloud-3.'" This is still an early stage where test satellites are launched one by one to check performance rather than a large-scale commercial business, and it's often emphasized that building a satellite and actually getting it onto a rocket and into orbit are completely different problems.