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Datacenters in space aren't going to work

taranis.ie

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Re: Datacenters in space aren't going to work

#131

Post by shigawire »

0_____0 wrote: post #29
Infinity315 wrote: post #2

So many ideas involving AI just seems to be built off of sci-fi (not in a good way), including this one. Like sci-fi, there are little practical considerations made.

Sci-fi isn't even really about the tech. It's about what happens to us, humans, when the tech changes in dramatic ways. Sci-fi authors dream up types of technology that create new social orders, factions, rifts, types of interpersonal relationships, types of fascism, where the unforseen consequences of human ingenuity hoist us upon our collective petard. But these baffoons only see the blinky shiney and completely mi…

This is a good point and is why I prefer to refer to the genre as Speculative Fiction - not only is it broader but it better gets at the idea behind this type of fiction. Not just space lasers.

Re: Datacenters in space aren't going to work

#132

Post by dudeinjapan »

mbesto wrote: post #120

Datacenters in space is about circumventing nation states masked as ambitions to generate more power. Follow the rationale: 1. Nation states ultimately control three key infrastructure pieces required to run data centers (a) land (protected by sovereign armed forces) (b) internet / internet infra (c) electricity. If crypto ever became a legitimate threat, nation states could simply seize any one of or all these three…

Nation states can fire missiles at your space datacenter, bruh.

Re: Datacenters in space aren't going to work

#133

Post by MadnessASAP »

PunchyHamster wrote: post #129
zie wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except the people that run and manage that satellite will be on earth, under some nation state's rules...

corporations will use their knowledge in tax dodging to avoid that too.

If they're already well versed in dodging fiscal rules, why do they need a space computer?

Re: Datacenters in space aren't going to work

#135

Post by __turbobrew__ »

mbesto wrote: post #120

Datacenters in space is about circumventing nation states masked as ambitions to generate more power. Follow the rationale: 1. Nation states ultimately control three key infrastructure pieces required to run data centers (a) land (protected by sovereign armed forces) (b) internet / internet infra (c) electricity. If crypto ever became a legitimate threat, nation states could simply seize any one of or all these three…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-satellite_weapon

Re: Datacenters in space aren't going to work

#136

Post by tom_ »

brandonagr2 wrote: post #126
skywhopper wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In exchange for what benefit? There is literally no benefit to having a datacenter in space.

The benefit is capturing a larger percentage of the output of the sun than what hits the earth.

Can that really work? The datacentre will surely be measurably smaller than the earth.

Re: Datacenters in space aren't going to work

#137

Post by suriya-ganesh »

MadnessASAP wrote: post #133
PunchyHamster wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

corporations will use their knowledge in tax dodging to avoid that too.

If they're already well versed in dodging fiscal rules, why do they need a space computer?

Physical location is difficult to dodge unfortunately.

Fiscal rules are sort of man made.

Re: Datacenters in space aren't going to work

#138

Post by titzer »

In addition to the ludicrous unworkable physics, as it turns out, datacenters need people servicing things all the time. Even if you could get those measly three racks into space, they'd function about a month before some harddisks were failing, network switches were down, some crap breaks in the cooling system, power system short, breakers trip, etc, and on and on.

So obviously we're not going to be some SREs into space to babysit the machines. Have everything fail in place? Have robots do it? What about the regular supply missions to keep replacing all the failing hardware (there's only so many spare HDDs you can have on hand).

The whole thing is farcical.

Re: Datacenters in space aren't going to work

#139

Post by foobarian »

wat10000 wrote: post #112
foobarian wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only advantage I can come up with is the background temperature being much colder than Earth surface. If you ignored the capex cost to get this launched and running in orbit, could the cooling cost be smaller? Maybe that's the gimmick being used to sell the idea. "Yes it costs more upfront but then the 40% cooling bill goes away... breakeven in X years"

Things on earth also have access to that coldness for about half of each day. How many data centers use radiative cooling into the night sky to supplement their regular cooling? The fact that the answer is “zero” should tell you all you need to know about how useful this is.

The atmosphere is in the way even at night, and re-radiates the energy. The effective background temperature is the temperature of the air, not to mention it would only work at night. I think there would need to be like 50-ish acres of radiators for a 50MW datacenter to radiate from 60 to 30C. This would be a lot smaller in space due to bigger temp delta. Either way opex would be much much less than average Earth DC (PUE almost 1 instead of run-of-the mill 1.5 or as low as 1.1 for hyperscalers). But yeah the upfront cost would be immense.

Re: Datacenters in space aren't going to work

#140

Post by fguerraz »

So what?

Of course it’s stupid and it’s never going to work. The same is true for Carbon Capture and Storage, blue hydrogen, etc. It’s nonsense from the start, but it didn’t stop governments around the world to spend billions on it.

It works like this: companies spend a few millions on PR to market a sci-fi project that’s barely plausible. Governments who really want to preserve the status quo but are pressured to “do something” can just announce that they’re sinking billions in it and voila! They’re green, they’re going to save the world.

It’s just a scam to get public money really.

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