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India's first privately-developed rocket reaches orbit on debut launch

arstechnica.com

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Re: India's first privately-developed rocket reaches orbit on debut launch

#141

Post by hahajk »

rayiner wrote: post #83
detritus wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mein Gott, you're not just making this up ( https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/neevcloud-and-agn... ). But.. why? Musk bandwagon-hopping? Investor bamboozlery? (Same diff?) Is my borderline childish understanding of basic physics THAT off because I cannot see the value or utility (beyond a small smear of niche edge cases) of space-based compute? - ed, disclosure: You seem to have edited your response whilst I…

> Is my borderline childish understanding of basic physics THAT off because I cannot see the value or utility (beyond a small smear of niche edge cases) of space-based compute? In the real world, "physics" is not necessarily the gating factor. There is a major concern about the environmental footprint of terrestrial data centers, to the point where major U.S. states are enacting moratoriums: https://www.governor.ny.g…

If I understand correctly, NY is concerned about the power and water consumption. 1. How do they get power in space? (solar) Do the same on earth at 1/100 the cost (or build 50x the number of solar to account for atmospheric loss and you will still come out ahead) 2. How do they get water in space (they don't). Whatever they do in space to not need water, do the same on earth! 3. People don't like living near datacenters - put them in remote areas hundreds of miles away from people, after all space datacenters won't have employees . Again, at 1/100 or 1/1000 the cost.

Re: India's first privately-developed rocket reaches orbit on debut launch

#142

Post by WalterBright »

alephnerd wrote: post #126
WalterBright wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> targeting orbital data center launches I am regularly assured by HN denizens that orbiting data centers will never work.

Because they won't for commercial usecases (which was never the point of an ODC). For C4ISR usecases they solve the latency problem and are worth the spend needed. Everyone on HN is talking about a commercial usecase that isn't under serious consideration.

What I repeatedly read here was it is physically not possible to build an ODC because of heat problems and alpha particle problems.

Re: India's first privately-developed rocket reaches orbit on debut launch

#143

Post by AlotOfReading »

alephnerd wrote: post #97
OneDonOne wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This borders on science fiction. 88,000-and 1-million satellite clusters (as claimed in your link) are hard to take seriously, especially with the possibility of Kessler Syndrome. Also: 1. How do you cool your chips? Vacuum is a thermal insulator, so radiators are required to remove heat. nVidia (or even ASICs) require much and specialised cooling. 2. How does one radiation harden a H100? 3. I'm also seeing where TCO…

The projections are questionable, but this is something the US and China are experimenting with as well. 1 and 2 are still open questions, but these are not aimed to be commercial grade DCs - this is basically edge compute (think a handful of racks). 3 is not a problem for defense usecases. (EDIT: Discussion here seems to point out that data OP is using might be flawed [1]). Ignoring the fact that just about every or…

    3 is not a problem for defense usecases.
Cost is the critical constraint for defense programs. Yes, militaries spend a shit-ton of money, but that's usually in a penny wise and pound foolish way. A dollar spent on your project is a dollar that's not spent on the innumerable things generals think are critical to their future wars like boondoggles, missiles, planes, ships, missile defense systems, etc.

The exception is if you're one of those rare projects. A starlink type constellation or launch capabilities certainly could be, but it's hard to imagine generals getting excited about compute in space just for the sake of it.

Re: India's first privately-developed rocket reaches orbit on debut launch

#144

Post by cute_boi »

shevy-java wrote: post #78

It's so sad that the Modi clique controls India. If India could become a real democracy, it could be competitive in the long run against China, because assuming similar quality and costs, people in democracies would much rather support a democracy than sinomarxist China or crazy-oligarch orange king country. But with Modi in charge, none of that is possible. Old men really need to leave politics, they just cause too…

Modi is bad, but Congress are objectively worst than him. This mean India have no choice.

Re: India's first privately-developed rocket reaches orbit on debut launch

#146

Post by downrightmike »

darth_avocado wrote: post #49
rrr_oh_man wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Only the third country to achieve this. What do you mean by this ?

Probably meant the third country with a private sector capability to launch rockets, US and China being the other two.

Japan just did a successful recapture of their first stage too

Re: India's first privately-developed rocket reaches orbit on debut launch

#148

Post by xyzzyz »

hahajk wrote: post #141
rayiner wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is my borderline childish understanding of basic physics THAT off because I cannot see the value or utility (beyond a small smear of niche edge cases) of space-based compute? In the real world, "physics" is not necessarily the gating factor. There is a major concern about the environmental footprint of terrestrial data centers, to the point where major U.S. states are enacting moratoriums: https://www.governor.ny.g…

If I understand correctly, NY is concerned about the power and water consumption. 1. How do they get power in space? (solar) Do the same on earth at 1/100 the cost (or build 50x the number of solar to account for atmospheric loss and you will still come out ahead) 2. How do they get water in space (they don't). Whatever they do in space to not need water, do the same on earth! 3. People don't like living near datacen…

The point is that while power and water is scarce in space, the NY state has no jurisdiction there. It might literally be easier to build data center in space than it is to overcome social and political pressure in NY.

Re: India's first privately-developed rocket reaches orbit on debut launch

#149

Post by nine_k »

crewindream wrote: post #136
NetMageSCW wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Explain to the class why Kessler Syndrome isn’t possible with large LEO constellations.

In a form of a question: does low earth orbit has big enough drag to be effectively do automatic cleanup every several years?

The answer is positive. LEO satellites need orbital corrections every few weeks, and some, several times a week.

Re: India's first privately-developed rocket reaches orbit on debut launch

#150

Post by walrus01 »

postingawayonhn wrote: post #135
walrus01 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18427351 Design and manufacturing is in the los angeles region aerospace industry cluster. It's been a US company for the last 13 years. https://rocketlabcorp.com/updates/rocket-lab-makes-its-defen...

Design and manufacturing for the rocket part of their business is mainly split between Auckland and Los Angeles. Various sources say they have between 500 and 700 employees in NZ. Earlier this year they acquired a new machining business in Auckland and are expanding capacity at their NZ launch site: https://rocketlabcorp.com/updates/rocket-lab-establishes-new...

My understanding is that they have a rocket body fabrication facility in NZ, where some of their historical institutional carbon fiber fabrication knowledge and stuff is, the engines and avionics and electronics are done in the Los Angeles area.
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