Lunar Edge Compute
“The computing capacity on the lunar surface necessary to support research, exploration and the development of a lunar presence does not currently exist.”
Driven by the rise of an increasingly commercialized space, competing interests by sovereign governments and the development of safe, reliable travel modalities to the Moon, human society will significantly expand both human and robotic operations on the lunar surface over the next two decades. Seeking to establish a new paradigm of value generation in space, countries are already racing to establish lunar bases to continue critical research and leverage the Moon’s unique resources. The projected value of the lunar infrastructure market is forecast to reach $40 billion by 2040 in the nominal scenario.
Market Opportunity: Edge Computing
Orbit Beyond has identified a commercial opportunity to exploit a first mover advantage and deploy an edge computing solution on the lunar surface, for use by a host of public and private sector clients. We forecast this opportunity would initially generate revenues of $10M-$20M annually - with significant growth potential. We anticipate that we will secure one of 3 potential NASA CLPS task orders by December 2023 and we shortly intend to announce a lunar mission to support this NASA contract ward.
Our Edge Computing Plan for the Lunar Surface
The planned lunar mission will take place in 2026 and will comprise international space agency payloads, alongside OrbitBeyond’s own payloads and a number of other private sector lunar payload commitments that we have secured. Orbit Beyond has developed a provisional design for an edge computing platform on the lunar surface. We intend to build, test and transport OrbitBeyond’s proprietary edge computing platform to the lunar surface as a part of the 2025 mission - which will be made available to space agencies like NASA on a commercial basis.
Strategic Alliances
We are currently exploring strategic alliances with partners who share our vision for the lunar economy and wish to collaborate on the commercial development of data centre solutions - including the build of a proprietary edge computing platform on the lunar surface.