全球人工智能（AI）数据中心能源需求激增，促使科技企业认真考虑将数据中心发射入太空是否可行。
Surging energy demand of artificial intelligence (AI) data centers worldwide prompt tech firms to seriously consider whether it’s feasible to launch data centers into space.
在NASA局长贾里德·艾萨克曼等知名航天界人士提出将AI算力基础设施迁移至地球轨道，以满足该行业日益增长的电力需求后，轨道数据中心的构想再度受到关注。
The idea of orbital data centers regained traction after prominent aerospace figures like NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman proposed relocating AI compute infrastructure to Earth’s orbit to meet the sector’s ever-growing power requirements.
地球上的常规数据中心拥有关键服务器、冷却系统和备用电源装置，以维持全球数字服务的运行。
Regular data centers on our planet have critical servers, cooling systems, and backup power units required to keep global digital services operational.
据Data Center Map统计，全球179个国家共有12,259个数据中心。
There are 12,259 data centers across 179 countries worldwide, according to Data Center Map.
美国拥有最多数据中心，占全球总数的39%，达4,767个运营枢纽；英国以568个位居第二，随后是德国（533个）、法国（393个）、中国（376个）、印度（305个）、澳大利亚（296个）、加拿大（292个）、意大利（262个）和日本（261个）。
The US boasts the most number of data centers hosting 39% of the world’s total with 4,767 operational hubs, followed by the UK with 568, Germany with 533, France with 393, China with 376, India with 305, Australia with 296, Canada with 292, Italy with 262, and Japan with 261.
俄罗斯拥有约188个数据中心，韩国有105个，土耳其运营81个，以色列有67个，沙特阿拉伯有61个，伊朗有19个，而朝鲜仅有1个数据中心。
Russia houses some 188 data centers, while South Korea has 105, Türkiye operates 81, Israel is home to 67, Saudi Arabia has 61, and Iran houses 19 facilities, while North Korea has a single data center.
现代AI模型激增的处理需求大幅推高了这些设施的电力消耗、制冷需求和物理用地规模。
Modern AI models’ surging processing needs drastically inflate power consumption, cooling requirements, and physical land use of these facilities.
单个大型数据园区产生的废热高达1亿“负瓦特”，本可供约10万户家庭使用。
A single large data campus can generate up to 100m negawatts of wasted heat, which would otherwise be enough to power around 100,000 residential households.
国际能源署（IEA）预计，到2025年全球数据中心用电量将达485太瓦时，并将在2030年翻近一番。
The International Energy Agency (IEA) expects global data center electricity consumption to reach 485 terawatt-hours by 2025 and nearly double by 2030.
到2030年，传统数据中心将占全球电力需求的约3%，而同期AI算力中心的能耗预计将增长两倍（即增至三倍）。
Traditional data centers will have made up around 3% of the world’s electricity demand by 2030, while the energy consumption of AI compute hubs is expected to triple during the same period.
与此同时，轨道数据中心提供了一种激进的替代方案，可不间断、持续地获取太阳能，且无需占用土地和冷却水资源。
Meanwhile, orbital data centers offer a radical alternative, providing uninterrupted and continuous access to solar energy and eliminating the need for land and cooling water.
然而，工程师们必须克服诸多障碍才能将这项技术商业化。将硬件送入太空、实现可靠的数据传输、以及无法进行常规的物理维护，这些都是阻碍人工智能领域广泛采用太空数据中心的主要因素。
Engineers will have to overcome massive obstacles to commercialize such a technology, however. The costs of launching hardware into space, establishing a usable data transmission latency, and the impossibility of routine physical maintenance are among the few hurdles in the way of having widespread orbital data center adoption in the AI sector.
美国宇航局（NASA）喷气推进实验室（JPL）的研究员斯拉瓦·G·图雷舍夫（Slava G. Turyshev）在接受《阿纳多卢通讯》（Anadolu）采访时指出，在太空中建立数据中心远比简单地将服务器机架送入轨道要复杂得多。目前，已有约16,000艘航天器在地球轨道上运行，而且这一数字预计还会呈指数级增长。
Slava G. Turyshev, a researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), told Anadolu that building a data center in space is not as simple as launching a server rack into orbit. He stated that the orbit is already crowded with some 16,000 spacecraft orbiting the Earth, while this number is expected to increase exponentially.
图雷舍夫表示，要在太空中部署一个功率为1兆瓦的数据处理节点，需要使用面积达6,000平方米（64,583.5平方英尺，约合1.5英亩）的太阳能电池板；该系统的重量“可能达到75吨”。此外，系统中的处理器必须具备抗辐射能力，同时整个系统还需要采用灵活、可扩展的结构设计；同时，太阳能电池板和散热器也需要被设计成模块化组件，以便在发生高速碰撞时仍能正常工作。
Turyshev noted that deploying a one-megawatt node in space would require up to 6,000 square meters (64,583.5 square feet or nearly one and a half acres) of solar panels and would weigh “probably 75 tons.”The system would also have to boast shielded processors to withstand the cosmic radiation in orbit, while requiring to be made up of sprawling, flexible structures, while accounting for solar arrays and radiators in modular sections to survive potential high-speed collisions.
“在近地轨道上，你会看到许多航天器的移动——它们会反射阳光，从而在天空中形成明显的可见痕迹，这其实是一件很有趣的现象，”他说。
“You will see a lot of movement in low Earth orbit because they will be reflecting the sun, and will see definitely see the activity in the sky, which okay, we can enjoy that,” he said.
他补充道，航空航天行业将在未来五年内开始在太空计算领域取得实质性进展；而一个能够可靠地执行数据处理任务的商业卫星网络，则可能最早在七年后、最晚在十年后投入使用。
He added that the aerospace industry will start producing tangible results in orbital computing within the next five years, while reaching a reliably functioning commercial satellite network dedicated to orbital data processing could be brought online in as early as seven years or up to 10 years.