How long until they turn a constellation into a giant LED billboard, showing commercials for Tesla?
SpaceX wants to launch a million satellites
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Re: SpaceX wants to launch a million satellites
#32[flagged]
Re: SpaceX wants to launch a million satellites
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
100 tons is quite a lot of gpus. If they manage to solve such "minor" problems as powering and cooling them they could run for a decade or so without consuming or polluting. The methane burned to get mass into orbit is trivial - a 500MW powerplant burns that much in under a day.
The problem isn't GPUs the problem is cooling them. Look into what percentage of the ISS by weight is radiators, look into how little power it can generate and radiate, and you'll see that space data centers is the shitcoin pitch of 2026.
ISS is not comparable, we don't have to keep GPUs in human-habitable temp ranges, and radiation speed goes way up with increased temps.
Re: SpaceX wants to launch a million satellites
#34[flagged]
Well, no shit. First grants went out in 2024, right in time for the administration to change; Lutnick put it on hold almost immediately. It also hasn't cost $42B; "By 2026, about half of the $42.45 billion allocated by Congress during the passage of the IIJA remained unused".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadband_Equity,_Access,_and_...
Incidentally, BEAD includes LEO satellites as part of it. SpaceX got grants from it. (https://texasstandard.org/stories/spacex-demands-changes-fed...)
Re: SpaceX wants to launch a million satellites
#35How long until they turn a constellation into a giant LED billboard, showing commercials for Tesla?
Arthur C. Clarke beat them to it - the thought, at least.
Watch This Space - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venture_to_the_Moon
Re: SpaceX wants to launch a million satellites
#36The people who want to put data centers in orbit must be either much smarter than me, or much dumber than me, because I just don't get how that makes any technical or economic sense.
Of course, it's possible nobody actually wants to do this, they just want to get funded to do it. (Old joke: "I wish I had enough money to buy an elephant...")
Re: SpaceX wants to launch a million satellites
#37Spacex will cause Kessler syndrom and bring the world economy down.
Re: SpaceX wants to launch a million satellites
#38[flagged]
They've only spent half of the BEAD funds, $21B. 50 out of 56 final plans have been approved so the remaining half will be released.
https://www.ntia.gov/press-release/2026/assistant-secretary-...