Brussels, April 2022 - LCL Data Centers is building a state-of-the-art Tier III data center on the Moon. Through its powerful OIDCE-program, LCL will launch the first data center on the lunar horizon by the end of 2030. Two astronauts from the European Space Agency (ESA) will accompany LCL’s multi-day journey to lunar orbit as part of an international collaboration to establish a permanent base. “This critical step puts humanity on a path to sustainable lunar development and sets the tone for missions even farther into the solar system”, says Laurens van Reijen, CEO of LCL.

With the OIDCE-program (Operation Intergalactic Data Center Expedition) LCL and its commercial and international partners are expanding their knowledge to the Moon for sustainability, scientific discovery, economic benefits, and inspiration for a new generation. Working with its partners throughout the OIDCE-program, LCL and ESA are currently fine-tuning precision landing technologies and developing new mobility capabilities to enable exploration of suitable regions of the Moon. The lunar data center expects to serve as a solar-powered communication hub, science laboratory, a holding area for robots and a short-term habitation module for astronauts. These and other innovations made under the OIDCE-program will ensure that the Belgian data center company and its partners are ready for the landing of a data center.

Other aspects that are currently being studied include transport systems to help astronauts explore the lunar surface, transport equipment and even an automated rover to transport raw materials. Infrastructures needed for the future lunar data center include a power generation and distribution facility. Power generation on the moon is extremely sustainable due to zero gravity conditions in producing energy.

"Since the world is changing rapidly, relying on Earth-based computational resources will very soon simply not be enough. Communications with the Earth from space are subject to a latency, bigger than what we consider acceptable for today’s standards and also bigger than the desired standard for low latency applications such as virtual machines and network storage," says Laurens van Reijen.

LCL has been working closely with the ESA experts since the start of the OIDCE-program to ensure it meets top performance requirements for human spaceflight standards. “This is an exciting time for LCL and the ESA team,” says Laurens van Reijen, CEO of LCL. “Since the start of the OIDCE-program, we proved that it is possible to do the seemingly impossible: land a data center on the Moon. By taking a collaborative approach in working with industry experts while leveraging ESA’s technical expertise and capabilities, we will return astronauts to the Moon’s surface and create immense innovations that will change the future of data centers forever.”