BICSI Beyond 2026

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What Can Be Learned from Orbital Data Center Design? (Room Islander Ballroom B)

Solar flares and Electromagnetic Pulses (EMP) produce damaging currents within communications lines. These disturbances can damage or destroy both electronic control equipment and the power transformers associated with electric grid distribution. Protection from EMP effects is, therefore, essential for survival of a space-based data center (orbital platform, lunar facility, etc.). The data center industry lacks well-established practices to reduce EMP risk to operations partly because operators consider EMP events to be highly unlikely. Government and military infrastructure use a variety of protective measures against EMP, some of which may be useful for non-governmental data centers. We will look at how USACE-style protection concepts could be applied to a space-based data center and if these are applicable on earth.