Lonestar and Phison's Data Center Infrastructure Set to Launch to the Moon

27.02.2025

Lonestar, a data storage and resilience company, and Phison, a semiconductor and storage firm, have launched a data center infrastructure aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket bound for the Moon. This initiative, which includes Phison’s Pascari SSDs preloaded with Lonestar’s clients’ data, marks the beginning of the first-ever lunar data center. The companies plan to expand this infrastructure in the future to eventually hold a petabyte of storage.

Chris Stott, founder and CEO of Lonestar, conceived the idea of an off-Earth data center in 2018, well before the current AI-driven surge in data storage demand. The motivation was to provide a secure, climate-resilient, and hack-proof solution for critical data. Stott emphasized the significance of data, stating that it is even more valuable than oil.

Phison was a natural choice as a partner, given its experience in providing storage solutions for space missions, including NASA’s Perseverance Rover. The company’s Imagine Plus design service allowed it to customize SSDs specifically for Lonestar’s needs. Michael Wu, Phison’s president, expressed excitement about the collaboration, highlighting the rigorous testing process to ensure reliability in space, where maintenance is nearly impossible.

Wednesday’s launch included various data sets from multiple governments focused on disaster recovery, a space agency experimenting with AI models, and even a music video from Imagine Dragons. This mission follows a successful test launch in early 2024, confirming the technology’s readiness.

As the demand for AI-driven storage grows, other companies are also exploring space-based data centers. Lonestar, however, remains at the forefront, planning to partner with satellite manufacturer Sidus Space to launch six additional storage spacecraft between 2027 and 2030. Stott compared the mission’s capabilities to past space programs, noting the dramatic leap from Apollo-era computers with just kilobytes of memory to today’s gigabytes of RAM and terabytes of storage.