Risk and Reliability in Space-Based Data Centers

pecht

A new article co-authored by Prof. Michael Pecht, founding director of the Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering (CALCE) at the University of Maryland, examines the reliability and risk challenges facing space-based data centers, an emerging concept for supporting the growing demands of artificial intelligence and cloud computing.

An article on this topic, “Reliability and Risk in Space-Based Data Centers: A Lifecycle Assessment of Orbital Cloud Infrastructure,” is published in Applied Sciences. The co-authors are Mahmoud Al Ahmad and Qurban Memon of the United Arab Emirates University.

pecht

As terrestrial data centers face increasing pressure from AI-driven computing demand, space-based data centers have been proposed as a possible alternative because of their access to continuous solar energy, radiative cooling, and global coverage. However, the study finds that practical deployment depends heavily on resolving reliability risks across the full mission lifecycle, including launch, orbital operation, maintenance, and end-of-life management. The paper identifies major risks, including launch-induced mechanical stress, radiation-driven degradation, thermal extremes, and single points of failure in power and communication subsystems. It also presents a unified risk-chain framework that shows how component-level reliability issues can affect system cost, redundancy requirements, and long-term operational feasibility.

A key finding is that achieving terrestrial-grade reliability in orbit would require significant redundancy and radiation-hardening, which could increase mass and cost. At the same time, lower-reliability designs may introduce operational and financial risks that limit the sustainability of orbital cloud infrastructure. The study positions reliability as a central factor in determining whether space-based data centers can move from concept to scalable reality. Its findings provide an applied foundation for future fault-tolerant, modular, and lifecycle-aware design strategies for orbital cloud infrastructure.

The article is available online here.

For more information about this article and related research, please contact Prof. Michael Pecht.

Published June 4, 2026