- Lonestar is planning to offer disaster recovery services from the moon
- It successfully tested a Lunar Software Fined Data Center in 2024
- Its next mission that soon launched is testing a physical data center (kind)
We all know how important it is to back up our personal data in the event of a disaster – I certainly learned the lesson the hard way years ago when a hard drive did not work and fried my desktop PC. As devastating as it was for me personally, for businesses, the loss of data can be disastrous, as while files and folders can be backed up in many ways, including to the cloud, offsite data centers, tape storage and NAS, some solutions take the idea to the extreme.
Such an example is Arctic World Archive (AWA), which stores data -filled containers in a sealed chamber within a shut down coal mine in Svalbard, between the mainland Norway and the North Pole. If it is not safe and distant enough for you, yes, there is always room.
Florida-based Lonestar Data Holdings was founded by Chris Stott in 2021 to provide data services such as disaster recovery and resilience-as-a-service from Earth’s ultimate backup location moon.
A RISC venture
Lonestar successfully tested the world’s first software -defined data center at International Space Station (ISS) in 2021 and 2022, then performed a full data storage test from the Moon’s surface last year.
In collaboration with his Lunar Access provider, Intuitive Machines, Lonestar completed his first mission to the moon (called “independence”) with a proof-of-concept demonstration after the IM-1 Odysseus Nova-C-Lander touched the Lunar South Pole last February. It was not a complete success as the vehicle ended up on its side.
Lonestar’s next mission, again with intuitive machines (this called “Freedom”), will be a test of the first physical “data center” (a RISC-V processor with a phison SSD running Ubuntu) that was sent off-plane. This mission will be launched on February 26.
Writing about Lonestar, Blocks and files Says, “The Freedom IT unit has a 3D-printed casing designed by BIG, an architecture and design group led by Danish architect Bjarke Ingels. The exterior is said to ‘reflect the silhouettes of NASA astronauts Charlie Duke (Apollo Moonwalker) and Nicole Stott (Space Station Space Walker).’
It is somewhat unexpected that a small computer system in a moon landing vehicle would have resources set aside for a house that, once closed in the Athena vehicle and loaded into SpaceX launch rocket, will never be seen again. Presumably Lonestar wants to catch people’s imagination with the idea. “As for Marketing Tunts, that’s good.
Assuming everything is going on the plan, Lonestar hopes to begin continuous commercial services in 2026.
