Data center: a facility designed to produce surplus compute or data storage and retrieval for arbitrary tasks. Tasks could be local, such as orchestrating many remote robots across the planet. Designs limited to only some kinds of tasks, hindering flexible usage as expected on Earth, would strain the definition.
Update 2026-07-19 (PST) (AI summary of creator comment): The data center does not need to meet a minimum size or power threshold. Quality of capability matters, not quantity. The Martian data center should be able to perform the same kinds of tasks as terrestrial data centers, though potentially more slowly.
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@vee it's about quality, not quantity. A computer with 4mb memory is a computer. The Martian data center should be able to do what terrestrial data centers can do, more slowly.
@EliG Can you refine the quality criterion then? Two laptops and a WiFi router qualify as "able to do what terrestrial data centers can do, more slowly", but they can't reasonably be considered a data center.
@vee no, they wouldn't be a data center without enough tooling to function as one. What's your point?
@vee example: an enclosure that shields them from the Martian environment, a sustainable power supply, external connectivity, cooling, server software, software to manage tasks. A real Martian data center would probably have extra storage, too.
an enclosure that shields them from the Martian environment, a sustainable power supply, external connectivity, cooling, [...] software to manage tasks
A laptop inside an habitat and connected to a WiFi router is very likely to have all that
server software
What qualifies as server software? Anything that listens on an open TCP or UDP port? Remote-control like a SSH or VNC server?
A real Martian data center would probably have extra storage
How much?