Sophia Space, Redwire partner on solar-powered orbital data centres

(SpaceEnergy) Sophia Space and Redwire have agreed to explore scalable orbital data-centre systems combining modular computing with solar generation, power distribution, thermal management and deployable space infrastructure.

The companies signed a memorandum of understanding covering near-term demonstration missions and longer-term orbital data-centre architectures.

Sophia Space’s TILE architecture integrates high-performance computing, solar power and passive radiative thermal management into modular systems intended for artificial-intelligence inference, in-orbit data processing and other compute-intensive workloads.

Redwire is expected to contribute technologies and engineering capabilities spanning deployable structures, solar power generation and distribution, heat management and rejection, spacecraft integration, avionics and systems engineering.

The companies said the collaboration is intended to address the transition from individual orbital-computing demonstrations towards repeatable infrastructure that can be expanded into larger data-centre systems.

Sophia Space and Redwire also intend to pursue selected US government and commercial opportunities jointly. Potential government programmes could involve the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Air Force Research Laboratory, Space Development Agency and National Reconnaissance Office.

The agreement covers potential concept development, joint proposals, internal research and development and customer engagement. No contract value or firm timetable for an orbital demonstration was disclosed.