Space-Based General-Purpose Search Engines (SB-GPSE): A Novel Framework for Deploying Internet Search Infrastructure in Earth Orbit
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Conventional general-purpose Internet search engines operate predominantly through terrestrial computing infrastructure, relying on geographically distributed data centers to support web crawling, indexing, query processing, information retrieval, relevance ranking, and search-result delivery. Meanwhile, the development of satellite constellations, orbital edge computing, and space-based data centers is creating new possibilities for relocating computational infrastructure beyond Earth's surface. However, an important question remains insufficiently explored: could the search engine itself become an orbital Internet service rather than simply using satellites as communication channels to access terrestrial search infrastructure? This paper introduces Space-Based General-Purpose Search Engines (SB-GPSE), a novel conceptual framework proposing the deployment and operation of general-purpose Internet search engine infrastructure within Earth-orbiting computing platforms. Under this paradigm, users on Earth submit conventional Internet search queries to an orbital search engine, where essential search operations—including query interpretation, index retrieval, candidate-document selection, relevance evaluation, and ranking—can be executed using computational and storage resources located in space. The resulting search information is subsequently transmitted to terrestrial users through satellite communication links. Unlike conventional satellite Internet services, satellite-assisted search systems, and orbital data retrieval platforms, SB-GPSE considers the orbital environment as a potential execution and service-delivery infrastructure for general-purpose Internet search itself. The framework further introduces a configurable space–ground collaborative architecture in which web crawling, index construction, index synchronization, query execution, and result delivery can be distributed between terrestrial and orbital computing environments according to operational requirements. This paper establishes the conceptual foundations, system architecture, operational models, technical requirements, and research challenges of SB-GPSE. Particular attention is given to orbital resource limitations, search-index consistency, communication latency, constellation coordination, energy management, fault tolerance, cybersecurity, and service continuity. No experimental performance or operational deployment is claimed. To the best of the author's knowledge, this work introduces a distinct research direction centered on operating general-purpose Internet search engines as space-based services, rather than limiting orbital computing to conventional communication, Earth observation, or satellite-specific data processing. The proposed framework opens a new research direction at the intersection of information retrieval, distributed computing, satellite networking, and space-based digital infrastructure.
Author: Zhang, Jincheng
Language: English
Subfield: Aerospace Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7225805181
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