Descrizione del progetto
Centri dati... nello spazio
Telecamere e sensori spaziali vigilano su quanto accade sulla superficie terrestre e trasmettono i dati alla Terra. Tuttavia, l’invio di questi dati richiede tempo. Una soluzione potrebbe essere quella di lanciare i centri dati in orbita: in questo modo si ridurrebbe l’impatto esponenziale della tecnologia digitale sul consumo energetico e sul riscaldamento climatico. L’installazione di grandi infrastrutture spaziali modulari con assemblaggio robotizzato, energia solare spaziale a livello di megawatt, comunicazioni ottiche ad alta velocità e vettori a basso costo e riutilizzabili è a portata di mano. Il progetto ASCEND, finanziato dall’UE, introdurrà un nuovo concetto pionieristico di sistema di servizi in orbita. In questo modo l’Europa diventerebbe un leader mondiale nelle infrastrutture modulari robotizzate e sostenibili e nei lanciatori riutilizzabili.
Obiettivo
This proposal introduces a pioneering new on-orbit services system concept which would rapidly industrialize the European space ecosystem, making Europe a world leader in robotized and sustainable modular infrastructures as well as reusable launchers, with additional competitive benefits for a sustainable European digital industry and sovereign cloud autonomy.
European space technology has now reached a level of maturity that makes possible a revolutionary – yet feasible – endeavour: the installation of internet data centres in orbit, in order to reduce the exponential impact of digital technology on energy consumption and on climate warming. The installation of large modular space infrastructures with robotic assembly, megawatt level space-based solar power, high throughput optical communications, low cost and reusable launchers, is now within the European space industry’s capability.
The goal of the proposed study is to demonstrate that placing future data centre capacity in orbit, using solar energy outside the earth’s atmosphere, will substantially lower the carbon footprint of digitalization. Space data centres could therefore become an active contributor to the EC Green Deal objective of carbon neutrality by 2050, which would justify the investment required to develop and install such a large space infrastructure system. It would also strengthen Europe’s digital sovereignty and autonomy, for a sustainable and prosperous digital future.
Given the ambition and huge potential impact of this project, which would become a major European flagship program, a broad system-level feasibility and business study is necessary. For that purpose, the ASCEND consortium has brought together major players in the fields of environment analysis (Carbone 4, Vito), data centres architecture, hardware and software (Orange, CloudFerro, HPE), space systems development (Thales Alenia Space, Airbus, DLR), and access to space (ArianeGroup).
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HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation ActionsCoordinatore
31100 Toulouse
Francia