If Luxembourg is able to back up Estonia's public data, then why not expand that concept and launch a company that wants to back up all of earth's data?

This must be the idea behind Lonestar Data Holdings. This Florida-based startup has announced that it is launching a series of data centers to the lunar surface. It has signed contracts for its first two missions and for the construction of its first data services payload.

By providing a platform for critical data infrastructure and edge processing, as well as using ITU spectrum filings to enable broadband communications, the VC-funded startup aims to revolutionize data services and communications from Earth's largest satellite, the Moon.

Lonestar sees the moon as the ideal location to serve the high-end segment of the $200 billion global data storage industry while also addressing key environmental concerns triggered by the rapid growth of data centers around the world.

​"Data is the greatest currency created by the human race," said Chris Stott, Founder of Lonestar in a prepared statement. "We are dependent upon it for nearly everything we do and it is too important to us as a species to store in Earth's ever more fragile biosphere. Earth's largest satellite, our moon, represents the ideal place to safely store our future."

As a result of the success of the company's edge data center test on the International Space Station (ISS) in December 2021, working with Canonical and Redwire, Lonestar is now moving forward with building the first of its lunar data centers.

The company has contracted to perform advanced service tests on Intuitive Machines' IM-1 mission, which is headed for Marius Hills in the Oceanus Procellarum region, and then fly their first data services payload on Intuitive Machines' IM-2 mission to the pole of the moon. Lonestar has also filed the necessary spectrum filings with the ITU.

Skycorp, which developed a web server for the International Space Station, has been contracted to build the first data center payload for Lonestar's proof-of-concept service.

Photo credit: Lonestar Data Holdings