Power and Intelligence Beyond Earth

Series date: September 8, 2026

Space data centers, space solar, and the possible economy connecting them.

This 30-article series explores the relationship between useful computation, electricity, and infrastructure beyond Earth. It begins with the demands of AI on Earth and follows the engineering questions outward: what work could computers in orbit perform, how would those computers receive power and shed heat, and who would keep them operating?

Five parts, one connected investigation

The first part asks why industry is looking toward space. It separates two ideas that are often confused: using solar electricity to operate computers in space, and collecting solar energy in space to deliver it somewhere else.

The second part examines the orbital data center. Articles cover early orbital computers, satellite-data processing, laser networks, orbital location, cooling, radiation, maintenance, launch costs, and competing approaches to an orbital cloud.

The third part turns to space solar power. It follows sunlight through a proposed power satellite and transmission system to a receiving site, then examines safety, competition with terrestrial energy, and the organizations pursuing these systems.

The fourth part brings power and computing together. It considers hybrid clouds, workloads suited to space, and possible lunar power and computing infrastructure. The fifth examines environmental consequences, ownership and governance, and the conditions under which an orbital economy might earn its place.

Read with the evidence in view

Imagined scenes and calculation assumptions are labeled throughout the manuscript. Source links distinguish evidence from analysis. A proposal, a demonstration, and a service operating repeatedly for customers represent different achievements; the articles keep those distinctions in view.

Read the series in order to follow the argument, or use the contents below to investigate a particular question. Each article includes links back to the contents and onward through the sequence.

Start with the reader introduction.

Contents

Part I — Why industry is looking toward space

1. The Biggest Construction Project Humanity Has Never Attempted
2. AI Has a Power Problem
3. Why Look to Space?
4. Two Revolutions That Are Often Confused

Part II — Building a data center in orbit

5. What Is a Space Data Center?
6. The First Orbital Computers Are Already Here
7. Why Process Satellite Data Before Sending It Home?
8. From Edge Computer to Orbital Cloud
9. The Laser Network That Must Tie It Together
10. Where Should We Put an Orbital Data Center?
11. The Hardest Problem May Be Heat
12. Can AI Chips Survive Space?
13. Who Repairs the Computers?
14. The Launch-Cost Equation
15. The Race to Build an Orbital Cloud

Part III — Harvesting solar energy in space

16. Sunlight Without Clouds
17. Anatomy of a Solar-Power Satellite
18. How Do You Beam Electricity Through Space?
19. The Rectenna: Where the Beam Comes Home
20. Would the Beam Be Safe?
21. Can Space Solar Compete With Earth's Energy?
22. Who Is Competing to Build Space Solar?

Part IV — When space solar powers space computing

23. The Marriage of Power and Intelligence
24. The Hybrid AI Cloud
25. What Work Actually Belongs in Space?
26. The Moon's First Power and Computing Grid
27. Could the Moon Export Computation Instead of Materials?

Part V — The consequences of orbital industrialization

28. The Environmental Bill Does Not Disappear in Space
29. Who Owns the Power, Data, and Orbits?
30. The Road to a Solar-Powered Orbital Economy