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Data centers in space makes no sense

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Re: Data centers in space makes no sense

#11
post #5

How about we just make a giant heatsink that reaches into space instead. Then we can cool the whole planet. Coming up with crazy ideas is cheap, but the logistics are obviously impractical.

Look into radiative cooling. Basically this, but more practical. Several companies working on it: https://www.skycoolsystems.com/

Re: Data centers in space makes no sense

#12

What’s there not to like? Superconductors. Free electricity. No cooling necessary. Put those three together and maybe it’s possible to push physics to its limits. Faster networking, maybe 4x-5x capacity per unit compared to earth. Servicing is a pain, might be cheaper to just replace the hardware when a node goes bad. But it mainly makes sense to those who have the capability and can do it cheaply (compared to the re…

Why is there no cooling necessary?

Re: Data centers in space makes no sense

#13

What’s there not to like? Superconductors. Free electricity. No cooling necessary. Put those three together and maybe it’s possible to push physics to its limits. Faster networking, maybe 4x-5x capacity per unit compared to earth. Servicing is a pain, might be cheaper to just replace the hardware when a node goes bad. But it mainly makes sense to those who have the capability and can do it cheaply (compared to the re…

Do you mean to suggest that computer hardware does not need to be cooled when it is in space? Or that it is trivial and easier to do this in space compared to on Earth? I don’t understand either claim, if so.

Re: Data centers in space makes no sense

#14

What’s there not to like? Superconductors. Free electricity. No cooling necessary. Put those three together and maybe it’s possible to push physics to its limits. Faster networking, maybe 4x-5x capacity per unit compared to earth. Servicing is a pain, might be cheaper to just replace the hardware when a node goes bad. But it mainly makes sense to those who have the capability and can do it cheaply (compared to the re…

> No cooling necessary.

This is false, it's hard to cool things in space. Space (vacuum) is a very good insulator.

3 are ways to cool things (lose energy):

  - Conduction
  - Convection
  - Radiation
In space, only radiation works, and it's the least efficient of those 3 options.

Re: Data centers in space makes no sense

#15

Very confused by this plan. Data centers on Earth are struggling with how to get rid of waste heat. It's really, really hard to get rid of waste heat in space. That seems to be about the worst possible place to put a data center.

Very confused by this plan.

How about now? https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce3ex92557jo

Re: Data centers in space makes no sense

#16

To Steelman the topic, Musk’s whole alleged mission is to make humans a multi-planet species that can survive an earth killing event. To that end, a small data center space isn’t about unit-economics, it’s a bigger mission. So the question we should consider is what can we put into space the further that mission. Can we put a meaningful sum of human knowledge out there for preservation? It sounds like “yes,” even if…

Sure but you could do that with a simple disc in space

Re: Data centers in space makes no sense

#17

To Steelman the topic, Musk’s whole alleged mission is to make humans a multi-planet species that can survive an earth killing event. To that end, a small data center space isn’t about unit-economics, it’s a bigger mission. So the question we should consider is what can we put into space the further that mission. Can we put a meaningful sum of human knowledge out there for preservation? It sounds like “yes,” even if…

When I was a kid, I had to go to CCD, a religious after school program for Catholics.

The whole time I was there it was a mental game of trying to steel man the contradictory or incoherent stuff, using my brain power to try and rewrite things to make sense.

After some years, I woke up and realized that’s what I was doing, and even if I could do it in my mind, that didn’t make the source material rational.

Heres hoping you have a similar moment.

Re: Data centers in space makes no sense

#18
I'd be curious to know simply how large the thermal radiator necessary to keep a typical GPU server cooled would be. Do they completely dwarf the server size? Can you do something with some esoteric material that is not particularly load-bearing but holds up well in space to get around some of these challenges?

Re: Data centers in space makes no sense

#19

What’s there not to like? Superconductors. Free electricity. No cooling necessary. Put those three together and maybe it’s possible to push physics to its limits. Faster networking, maybe 4x-5x capacity per unit compared to earth. Servicing is a pain, might be cheaper to just replace the hardware when a node goes bad. But it mainly makes sense to those who have the capability and can do it cheaply (compared to the re…

Your exuberance for this topic is only matched by your lack of understanding about it.

Re: Data centers in space makes no sense

#20

It possibly makes sense if you're preparing for war, harder to hit, harder to physically break into, beyond the range of nuclear EMP, and accessible from anywhere on earth.

Any country capable of producing nuclear warheads will also be able to toss up enough BBs and other small objects into LEO to wipe out most of Starlink and anything else in LEO. At least on Earth data centers in theory can be hidden and physically hardened. In orbit, even a crude rocket able to reach that plane can become a weapon of mass satellite destruction. Even if those orbits clear out in four or five years, by then whatever ugliness is going on down on the surface of Earth will likely have resolved one way or the other. Starlink is a great military asset for a superpower pushing around smaller states in ways that aren't an existential threat to them. In a real conflict, it's a fragile target beyond the strike capacities of much of the developing world but easily destroyed by any moderate level industrial nation.
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