Data centres might make the modern, data-driven world go round, but they also have a major environmental impact.

They need vast amounts of power to operate, and produce large amounts of CO2 in the process.

They also require substantial areas of land and water consumption for traditional cooling processes.

Now, the results of a major feasibility study could pave the way for the development and eventual deployment of data centres that are assembled and operated in space.

Known as ASCEND (Advanced Space Cloud for European Net zero emission and Data sovereignty), the study was funded by the European Commission under the Horizon Europe programme.

The study aimed to compare the impact of space and Earth-based data centres and assess the potential of space data centres in contributing towards the EU Green Deal’s objective of reaching net zero by 2050.

It also aimed to validate the technological feasibility of developing, deploying and operating data centres in orbit, with Thales Alenia Space coordinating a consortium of partners.

The study addressed areas including launchers, cloud computing and orbital systems.

Project would require the development of a new launcher

It found that space data centres that significantly reduced CO2 emissions would require a new launcher that was an estimated 10 times less emissive over its entire lifecycle.

The benefits of reducing the energy, water usage and environmental impact of data centres could generate major investments within the framework of the EU’s Green Deal, however, justifying the development of such a launcher.

As well as the development of a comparatively eco-friendly, reusable and high-capacity launcher, the modular infrastructures of the data centres themselves would also need to be assembled.

These would be put together in orbit using advanced robotic technologies from the European Commission’s EROSS IOD (European Robotic Orbital Support Services In Orbit Demonstrator) programme.

EROSS IOD is currently set to fly its first mission in two years’ time, and ASCEND suggests that at least one gigawatt of capacity could be deployed in space before 2050.

The study also confirmed the economic feasibility of the project, which could see a return of investment of several billion euros by 2050.

According to Thales Alenia Space CTO Christophe Valorge, the results of the study showed that data centres deployed in space could transform the European digital landscape.

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