It's extremely unlikely that companies will find no locations that let them build zero power zero water data centers. And bulk AI stuff isn't latency sensitive either so the acceptable build radius is huge.
Exactly. This whole thing is not about being able to build whatever they can afford, it’s about being in a (stupid) race to build it as fast as possible.
Even for ultimate speed I don't see how it works. Facilities to make and launch satellites add a lot of delays and need their own permits.
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…
Explain to the class why Kessler Syndrome isn’t possible with large LEO constellations.
In case of collision in LEO, wouldn't the debris have chance to go high altitude and cause further collisions?
Ok, there are at least two bad assumptions there. First, it assumes the radiator is at the same temperature as the GPU. But radiators become dramatically more effective as temperature increases, with radiated power increasing as the fourth power of absolute temperature. So a heat pump that drives the radiator at higher temperature could make the radiator far smaller. More power would be required (and the radiator wou…
> Ok, there are at least two bad assumptions there. > First, it assumes the radiator is at the same temperature as the GPU. But radiators become dramatically more effective as temperature increases, with radiated power increasing as the fourth power of absolute temperature. So a heat pump that drives the radiator at higher temperature could make the radiator far smaller. Carnot's theorem and refridgeration cycles rea…
>Also, how do you deal with the added cost and complexity for the solar tracking mechanisms for the "edge-on-to-the-Sun" radiator?
Almost every satellite needs attitude control, so this isn't something out of the ordinary. I'm not sure solar tracking mechanisms really fall into the "expensive" or "complex" categories in 2026.
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.
It's extremely unlikely that companies will find no locations that let them build zero power zero water data centers. And bulk AI stuff isn't latency sensitive either so the acceptable build radius is huge.
Most locations that could provide guaranteed power for western companies with stable governments are also full of NIMBY or NGO who could easily blockade those datacenters. Then you'll have to run to offgrid locations where you have to build 24hr battery for solar with closed loop cooling. Is 24hr battery+solar on earth cheaper than LEO satellites in constant sun without batteries? That's the question that would make or break satellite datacenters, as political climate against AI datacenters is increasingly getting bad with increasing electricity prices.
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? Don't worry, most of the people online didn't get the memo on this. One of the major selling points of orbital compute is power supply - more specifically, it turns out that, compared to beaming power from space, it's projected to be cheaper t…
Everybody keeps talking about cheap, clean power. But where I live the price of power has gone up dramatically in recent years. Free power (well, marginally free, anyway) is a major plus.
My concern is more in the realms of cooling. I know there's the potential for lots of 'free' energy up there, but how do you then ensure your space-based array of GPU farms bleed all of the resultant heat?
From a Defense perspective, it's acceptable if multiple ODC fails and you have to re-launch another one. This is why these are being treated as part of a mesh. These aren't supposed to be a commercial DC and are intended to be a mesh of multiple racks in orbit. The fact that the US, China, Russia, and India have already deployed ASATs means a Kessler effect if a question of when and not if .
The Russians put the first ASats up in the '70s. Their existence doesn't require use.
> 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.
It's funny, people here said the same thing about Starlink. "Sure, it's technically possible, but you could only lose money by doing something like that. There's just no market for it."
Liquid fueled launch vehicles aren't storable/able to be made ready at a moment's notice, unlike solids. Liquid fueled historical artifact: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SM-65_Atlas There's a reason all modern silo based (and submarine) ICBMs are solids.
> There's a reason all modern silo based (and submarine) ICBMs are solids. Believe it or not, here in 2026, this is incorrect! Those crazy Russians: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R-29RMU_Sineva https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R-29RMU2_Lajner UDMH + nitrogen tetroxide. I would not want to be a Russian submariner. For all sorts of reasons.
To be fair, while these missiles are still in service they're obsolete and are slated for retirement the coming decade.
I have an AI generated podcast that tries to unearth some of the negative spin that develops around these amazing achievements. No surprise there was a spike in misinformation this week and I’m sure there will be more to come. It can be hard when you are blindsided by negativity that seems to come out of nowhere. Hopefully this is helpful to us all https://rss.com/podcasts/the-narrative-networks-podcast/3017...