When your data is too precious for Earth, the moon offers a viable storage solution. Lonestar, a data center firm, has partnered with Phison and SpaceX to launch a payload via a Falcon 9 rocket toward the lunar surface.

Rocket Launch

The mission, dubbed the ‘Freedom Mission’, aims to validate the feasibility of lunar data storage. According to Phison, this effort is geared toward providing an “additional layer of fortitude against natural disasters and unpredictable impacts to crucial data.” However, one wonders how data will survive a possible obliteration of Earth.

Part of the payload includes Phison’s Pascari SSD, engineered to endure cosmic radiation and the rough conditions of space travel. In fact, it’s set to land on the moon around March 4-6.

“Phison worked closely beside Lonestar to provide a Pascari enterprise-grade storage solution pressure-tested to withstand cosmic radiation, harsh temperature variation, vibrations and disturbances from lunar launches and landings,” said a company representative.

Although this serves as impressive marketing for Phison, which can boast, “Our SSD has been to the moon,” the storage also has undisclosed customers.

The previous mission by Lonestar already demonstrated lunar data capacity, sending historic documents like the US Declaration of Independence.

Lonestar’s goal is to create ‘space-based data services’ such as RaaS (Recovery and Resiliency as a Service) on the moon. The idea of offering commercial data recovery services in space may not be the most adventurous concept but undeniably represents the merging of technology and outer space exploration.

In closing, the data center for the Freedom Mission was cleverly designed to mirror the silhouettes of NASA astronauts Charlie Duke and Nicole Stott, a nod to the Artemis initiative, adding a touch of romanticism to their corporate enterprise.