Sophia Space, a portfolio company of Mandala Space Ventures, has announced the issuance of U.S. Patent No. 12,679,564, titled “Space-Based Data Centers,” which is jointly owned by Sophia Space and Caltech. The patent, filed in October 2024 and issued on July 14, 2026, covered architectures for the implementation of large-scale, modular data centers in space. The architecture used solar energy to power onboard computers and data storage designed specifically to operate in a space environment, while passively radiating heat into deep space. The invention emerged from an internal research and development program within JPL, which was managed by Caltech, designed to support the exploration of experimental concepts outside of JPL’s active mission portfolio.
The patent named seven inventors, drawing on expertise from JPL, Caltech, and Sophia Space: Dr. John R. Brophy (JPL), Dr. Leon Alkalai (Sophia Space), Prof. Sergio Pellegrino (Caltech), Dr. Jonathan Sauder (JPL), Timothy P. McElrath (JPL), Dr. Douglas J. Sheldon (JPL), and Don J. Hunter. Dr. Alkalai, a longtime JPL Fellow, founded Sophia Space to commercialize the invention in June 2023 as a portfolio company of Mandala Space Ventures, a Pasadena-based venture studio focused on the emerging orbital economy.
“This patent reflects a different way of thinking about computer infrastructure in space,” said Dr. Alkalai, Founder and CTO of Sophia Space. “You can’t simply take a terrestrial data center and move it into space. Building data centers in space requires a fresh look at the energy life-cycle problem. Cooling in space is not simple. The only way to cool the data center in space is by radiating waste heat into deep space. Our work invented the ‘TILE’ architecture, a modular, scalable, passively cooled computing and data storage unit that can be assembled into a large-scale computing data center surface in space that is constantly powered by solar energy and constantly radiates into deep space.”
