Datacenters in Antarctica or floating on the ocean make more sense than space.
Pantheon style
Datacenters in space aren't going to work
201–210 of 447 posts
Re: Datacenters in space aren't going to work
#202Related" "A City on Mars" (2024) [1] A useful book on why self-sustaining settlements on Luna, Mars, or earth orbit are pretty much hopeless. Remote bases that take a lot of supply, maybe, with great difficulty. The environment is just too hostile and doesn't have essential resources for self-sustaining settlements. The authors go into how Antarctic bases work and how Biosphere II didn't. The worst real estate on Ear…
> The worst real estate on Earth is better than the best real estate on Mars or Luna.
Very true..
Here's a recent HN link to a chilling documentary about one of the most isolated settlements in the world: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46040459
Re: Datacenters in space aren't going to work
#203I'd be most curious to see what type of processing power they would put on such a data center. For example, the JWST uses a RAD750 ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAD750 ) which is based on a PowerPC 750 running at 110 MHz to 200 MHz. Its successor is the RAD5500 ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAD5500 )... which runs at between 66 MHz and 462 MHz. > The RAD5545 processor employs four RAD5500 cores, achieving perform…
I think the last time they put commodity hardware in orbit was via the HPE[1] project and the results were quite mixed with failure rates for components that were quite high. In addition to running the system in a twin config to get any meaningful work done.
Best case scenario custom ASICs for specialised workloads either for edge computing of orbital workloads or military stuff.That would be with ability to replace/upgrade components rather than a sealed sat like environment.
Its similar to the hype for spacelink type sats for internet connectivity rather than a proper fiber buildout that would solve most of the issues at less cost.After the last couple of years seeing the deployment in UKR,Sahel its mostly a mil tool.
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/24/updated_hpe_spaceborn...
Re: Datacenters in space aren't going to work
#204Earlier quoted context omitted.
Technically radiation cooling is 100% efficient. And remarkably effective, you can cool an inert object to the temperature of the CMBR (4K) without doing anything at all. However it is rather slow and works best if there's no nearby planets or stars. Fun fact though, make your radiator hotter and you can dump just as much if not more energy then you would typically via convective cooling. At 1400C (just below the mel…
How much power would a square meter at 1400C shed from convection?
A sports car radiator has about that size and dumps 1 MW without boiling the coolant.
Re: Datacenters in space aren't going to work
#205Earlier quoted context omitted.
Strictly speaking, the thermosphere is actually much warmer than the atmosphere we experience--on the order of 100's or even a 1000 degrees Celsius, if you're measuring by temperature (the average kinetic energy of molecules). However, since particle density is so low, the number of molecules is quite low, and so total heat content of the thermosphere is low. But since particle count is low, conduction and convection…
Technically radiation cooling is 100% efficient. And remarkably effective, you can cool an inert object to the temperature of the CMBR (4K) without doing anything at all. However it is rather slow and works best if there's no nearby planets or stars. Fun fact though, make your radiator hotter and you can dump just as much if not more energy then you would typically via convective cooling. At 1400C (just below the mel…
Your hypothetical liquid metal heat pump would have a Carnot efficiency of only 25%.
Re: Datacenters in space aren't going to work
#206Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Moon doesn't have a magnetic field, though, so the second half of the article discussing difficulties due to radiation would still apply, right?
We will need to develop very robust, space-worthy electronics eventually. We can't rely on natural magnetic fields forever.
We have been relying on natural magnetic fields for over a billion years, so we can probably continue doing so for a while.
Re: Datacenters in space aren't going to work
#207Earlier quoted context omitted.
Technically radiation cooling is 100% efficient. And remarkably effective, you can cool an inert object to the temperature of the CMBR (4K) without doing anything at all. However it is rather slow and works best if there's no nearby planets or stars. Fun fact though, make your radiator hotter and you can dump just as much if not more energy then you would typically via convective cooling. At 1400C (just below the mel…
How much power would a square meter at 1400C shed from convection?
I dont have firm numbers for you since it would depend on environmental conditions. As an educated guess though, I would say a fucking shit ton. You wouldn't want to be anywhere near the damn thing.
Re: Datacenters in space aren't going to work
#208Earlier quoted context omitted.
How much power would a square meter at 1400C shed from convection?
A sports car radiator has about that size and dumps 1 MW without boiling the coolant.
A car's "radiator" doesn't actually lose heat by radiation though. It conducts heat to the air rushing through it. That's absolutely nothing like a radiator in a vacuum.
Re: Datacenters in space aren't going to work
#209Eager space did a pretty thorough hypothetical cost breakdown of orbital data centers that I recommend.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAcR7kqOb3o
Re: Datacenters in space aren't going to work
#210Sounds like the people behind Solar Roadways found a new project.