Enabling Space Datacenter Connectivity via Satellite Constellations

Abstract

The availability of abundant solar energy is driving renewed interest in orbital computing infrastructures hosted on Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO) constellations. However, these constellations suffer from limited instantaneous Earth coverage and constrained direct-to-ground, which is clearly incompatible with the connectivity and responsiveness requirements of datacenter clients. In this paper, we propose a hybrid architecture where SSO satellites offload traffic through Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Walker constellations—such as OneWeb and Starlink—which act as a dynamic relay layer toward the ground. We design and evaluate dynamic inter-orbital link topologies enabling SSO-to-Walker connectivity and analyze their performance in terms of link availability, relay opportunities, path continuity, and network resilience. Our results show that leveraging Walker constellations as relays significantly improves SSO systems, effectively compensating for their coverage limitations.