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SRIC4 #12: “Data Centers in Space: an update”

17 February 2026 @ 9:00 pm - 10:30 pm CET

This is the preliminary webinar #12 of the IV SRI World Congress (SRIC4)

Abstract

By Alberto Cavallo – December 2, 2025 

A central thesis which Space Renaissance International has enounced since the beginning is the opportunity of moving industrial and business activities to space: not “old space” activities like communications, Earth observation, and positioning services, but all industries that have a significant impact on Earth’s environment and can practically be transferred to space, specifically in the cislunar environment. There are several motivations to do that: 1. Reducing land occupation 2. Avoiding emissions of chemicals as well as waste heat on Earth, which affects the use of water, which is a precious resource 3. Reducing the load on energy systems, which in turn affects 1 and 2 4. Ensuring the possibility of unlimited scale-up, when space resources start to be used There is no doubt about the advantages, but in order to reach an industrial development off-Earth, several conditions must be met: 1. The activity must be feasible in space 2. The product or the service must be easy to deliver on Earth, because initially, the market will be there 3. The first activities should not require big technical advancements to be performed in space, allowing a reasonably quick deployment 4. Cost must be competitive Data centers are good candidates for the role of the first land-based activity that can be moved to space. The paper deals with the advantages and requirements connected to transferring data processing into space, showing how this operation can reach the goals and meet the conditions listed above. The main downside is, of course, cost, but the amazing progress being achieved in the reduction of launch cost can be decisive and can enable the initiatives that are, in fact, already starting, as described in the final section. Recently (November 2025), the Blue Origin New Glenn heavy launcher became fully operational with a flawless second launch, while SpaceX Starship has overcome some failures, succeeding in two consecutive test launches and is underway to reach operability, possibly within 2026. These launchers can reduce the cost to orbit enough to make space-based data processing competitive with land installations. This paper is an update of the one presented at IAC-2025 in Sidney, with the title: ”3xE: Energy, Economy, Environment. A space perspective case: Big Data Farms in Space.”

A short bio

Alberto Cavallo is an Electrical Engineer, graduated from the Politecnico di Torino in 1985. He began his activity with designing electric systems in Fiat Engineering, the engineering and construction company of the FIAT Group, moving soon to control and automation systems in the same company. He was involved in all business areas of the company, which included revamping and new projects of car factories for the FIAT Group as well as large infrastructures, power, and cogeneration plants for external clients. Among the projects of that time were the new FIAT factories in Melfi and Pratola Serra, the high-speed railways Torino-Milano and Bologna-Firenze, the district heating system of Torino Sud, combined cycle power plants for several hundred megawatts in Italy and in Brazil. Since Fiat Engineering was transferred from the FIAT Group to a new EPC group and then merged with a large EPC company in Milan, he was involved in large oil and gas and petrochemical projects all over the world until his retirement in 2024. Besides his professional activity, he has always taken part in several cultural activities. He was a member of the Association of Alumni of the Liceo Classico Vittorio Alfieri of Turin, active in promoting humanistic culture as well as its connection to the technical and scientific area. He manages his own website www.eurinome.it (in Italian only) about philosophy, science, and politics/geopolitics. Due to this, he got in contact with Adriano Autino and his TDF, then became one of the founding members of Space Renaissance International. Besides several papers in his professional area, he has written several articles for his own site, for TDF and SRI, coauthoring the book “Three Theses for the Space Renaissance” with Adriano Autino and Patrick Q. Collins. He is currently a member of the Board of SRI.

Follow the Livestream on the Space Renaissance YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/live/QuNDRuhdeMo
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Details

Venue

  • Zoom

Organizer