Datacenters in space aren't going to work

Post by cess11 » Sun, Nov 30, 2025, 9:40 PM UTC

rklaehn wrote: post #403

This article is written as if SpaceX does not exist. Every single comparison is against 30, 35 year old obsolete technology. Power: It uses the ISS solar arrays as reference. They are obsolete for decades. A much better reference for the purpose of cost estimation would be Starlink sats. The total installed power of all Starlink sats is tens of megawatts, and will reach gigawatts once larger Starlink sats will be lau…

Post by bigyabai » Sun, Nov 30, 2025, 10:15 PM UTC

exomonk wrote: post #412

bigyabai wrote: post #407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Space datacenters have the dual-use of tracking and weapons targeting Space datacenters aren't going to be equipped with military infrared sensors. They stick out like a sore thumb on the electromagnetic spectrum and the second you test it every peer-power would know it's a military platform. Nevermind the fact that the satellites don't transmit to American C2, so they'd need laggy ad-hoc networking to reach STRATC…

Not sure what you're trying to say If you're interested in Musk and the Mars Society history as a front for the U.S. military industrial complex, a good start is https://www.mintpressnews.com/pentagon-recruiting-elon-musk-... And that was written before Musk won the recent Golden Dome contracts, etc.. so very precient

Post by adastra22 » Sun, Nov 30, 2025, 10:24 PM UTC

cess11 wrote: post #410

adastra22 wrote: post #397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why though? That’s the interesting part. Pioneers want to be there to experience the challenge of bootstrapping. It’s the whole point. It’s like saying “why climb Everest? We can send a drone up instead.”

Right, and now that "climb Everest" is past the "pioneer" stage, what does it look like? Trash, exploitation and littered with corpses.

Post by DennisP » Sun, Nov 30, 2025, 11:07 PM UTC

adastra22 wrote: post #397

mjevans wrote: post #369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Though it lacks in the headlines, my preference is to send the robots first to bootstrap local production. Unless we really screw up the worst case would be some extra garbage to clean up for future missions, and the best case is any sort of increase in local production capacity.

Why though? That’s the interesting part. Pioneers want to be there to experience the challenge of bootstrapping. It’s the whole point. It’s like saying “why climb Everest? We can send a drone up instead.”

Post by eldenring » Sun, Nov 30, 2025, 11:33 PM UTC

mjhay wrote: post #271

eldenring wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The comment you were replying to mentioned this. Yes you cant remove heat via convection, but you can use radiators to emit heat as radiation into space.

You need HUGE radiators to emit a lot of low-temp waste heat into space. That kills this idea right there.