The moon is quickly becoming a strategic asset for nations and businesses seeking to use its resources for human habitation and long space missions. Lonestar Data Holdings Inc. is one such startup that is planning to build the first data center on the moon.
The American company has now raised $5M in seed funding. The round was led by Scout Ventures and joined by Seldor Capital, 2 Future Holding, The Veteran Fund, Irongate Capital, Atypical Ventures, and KittyHawk Ventures.
The funds will be used to accelerate the company’s expansion and extend its offerings to satisfy the needs of its global clients. In 2023, the company plans to launch a series of data centers to the lunar surface.
The first Lonestar data center, which is the size of a hardcover book, will be followed by several bigger data centres that offer data storage and edge processing.
“We are thrilled to have completed this successful seed round and are sincerely grateful for the support and vision of our investors,” said Chris Stott, CEO of Lonestar.
“We believe that expanding the world’s economy to encompass the Moon, which happens to be the Earth’s most stable satellite, is the next whitespace in the New Space Economy,” says Scout Ventures’ Founder and Managing Partner, Brad Harrison. “Data security and storage will be a necessary part of leading the new generation of lunar exploration.”
Founded in 2018 by Chris Stott, Lonestar Data aims to provide terrestrial data services to the Moon for the terrestrial archive market as well as to support space activities with the help of data analytics, archival services, and broadband relay to terrestrial public and private clouds, Lonestar Data aims to provide terrestrial data services to the Moon for the terrestrial archive market as well as to support space activities.
Stott has devoted his entire career to the satellite and telecom sectors. He formerly served as the CEO of the largest commercial satellite spectrum provider in the world and has held positions with Boeing, McDonnell Douglas, and Lockheed Martin Space Operations. He is the founding director of the International Institute of Space Commerce and a member of the International Space University’s faculty and advisory board. Even his wife spent more than 100 days in space before retiring as a NASA astronaut.
