The Sfera space project, which envisages the launch of more than 600 satellites "that will be engaged in positioning, Earth probing, and communications," was first announced by Vladimir Putin during a direct line on June 7, 2018. "This will be a real breakthrough," he said then. Sfera is considered a continuation of the Efir project, which Roscosmos structures launched as an alternative to Western systems - the British OneWeb and the American bangladesh whatsapp resource company of billionaire Elon Musk, Starlink. During the SPIEF in June 2021, Dmitry Rogozin, who then headed Roscosmos, said that "the Sfera project will cost 0.8 trillion rubles, of which 500 billion is extra-budgetary." But in July 2022, the government approved budget financing for Sfera in the amount of only 95 billion rubles.
The first Sfera satellite, Skif-D, was launched in October 2023 from the Vostochny Cosmodrome. It is an experimental satellite of the promising Skif collective broadband Internet access group.
"At the end of 2023, Roscosmos is ready to launch the first spacecraft of the new multi-satellite constellation for providing Internet of Things services, Marathon, consisting of 264 satellites," the state corporation said. This satellite will make it possible to test the space-Earth communication channel both with control stations and with subscriber terminals being created in Sfera, including for rescue services, fire monitoring, and seismic control. "After which, serial production of spacecraft will begin at a new conveyor-type serial production site," they specified.
Roscosmos' plans for using blockchain are not limited to projects in the field of data transmission from the ISS and the sale of Sfera services. "If we talk about the lunar program and projects for the exploration of deep space, the prospects for using the technology lie in ensuring the integrity of stored experimental data. Our partners at NASA have such projects, and similar technologies are being developed in Russia," Prokhorov said.
Lunar data center
Indeed, the state corporation is not a pioneer in terms of using blockchain in outer space. Thus, the American startup Lonestar Data Holdings Inc. on October 10 announced the details of its project to create a data storage facility on the Moon. During the flight to the Moon, while the spacecraft is in its orbit and on the lunar surface, the Declaration of Independence of the United States will be transmitted from Earth. The US Constitution and the Bill of Rights will be transmitted back to Earth. In this way, the company wants to test the technology of emergency data recovery — Disaster Recovery as a Service, DRaaS — in space conditions.
Lonestar is going to deliver 1 TB of data to the Earth's satellite, Interesting Engineering writes, citing BBC Science Focus (the material is available in Google's cache). At first, their storage will be provided by energy and communication from the spacecraft, and Lonestar wants to create a separate data center on the Moon in 2026. When storing data on the Moon, Lonestar plans to use blockchain. This technology can ensure the security and immutability of records of lunar missions, including data on the spacecraft, its cargo, and the purpose of the flights, Interesting Engineering lists. Blockchain will improve the accuracy of data and the transparency of organizations and space agencies involved in lunar exploration.
At the same time, project participants should remember that using blockchain in space or on the Moon is associated with major technological and logistical obstacles, writes Interesting Engineering. Difficulties may arise in the course of creating and maintaining network infrastructure, eliminating data transfer delays, ensuring the reliability and operability of blockchain systems in the harsh conditions of space. In addition, the introduction of blockchain into space exploration projects may require international coordination, regulatory frameworks, and agreements between space powers and organizations, the article notes.
Despite this, investors have faith in Lonestar's plans: in March 2023, the company raised $5 million in seed funding.
At the same time, a representative of Roscosmos believes that it is "not entirely correct" to compare the state corporation's and Lonestar's blockchain projects, since Roscosmos is working on "the issue of using promising technologies to solve practically significant problems." "Until a significant part of the lunar mission infrastructure is deployed, the presence of such systems will not create significant benefits," believes Sergei Prokhorov. "The surface of the Moon has extremely difficult conditions for any electronic devices due to the difficulty of ensuring thermal conditions and protection from radiation exposure. At the moment, the likelihood of long-term operation of such systems is low."