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points by gmerc 3 days ago | 0 comments

It’s still cheaper to build in a completely undeveloped desert with no neighbors and costly utility hookups than space. By orders of magnitude. That gap will never be materially close.

Space datacenters are just SDI2, a convenient bullshit to be able to funnel more money to campaign donors.

As long as there’s space on earth, Space Datacenters can never be economical. It’s rally that simple.

[–] hparadiz 3 days ago

If Starship launches end up in the $20 million range they would be easily economical. Running cable isn't free.

[–] ileonichwiesz 3 days ago

And how many of these rockets would you have to launch to match the capacity of a mid-size terrestrial data center?

We’re not talking about launching little satellites here, we’re talking about replacing giant buildings.

[–] adrianN 3 days ago

How do you cool a datacenter in a vacuum? You’d need ridiculous radiators to dump megawatts. How do you service it in space when something breaks?

[–] mike_hearn 3 days ago

An individual satellite would not be consuming megawatts.

The radiators are not a big deal. The solar panels required are much bigger. You can just run the electronics really hot to improve the efficiency of the radiation. Nobody is going to get close to those chips so the usual safety requirements don't apply.

You don't service it. Over time the chips degrade and become less useful. Eventually you deorbit it and it burns up. It's a sealed unit, not meant to be replaced.

[–] adrianN 3 days ago

Can you share the math of why the panels need to be larger than the radiators?

[–] echoangle 3 days ago

> You can just run the electronics really hot to improve the efficiency of the radiation. Nobody is going to get close to those chips so the usual safety requirements don't apply.

The chip temperature isn’t limited by safety issues (unless self destruction of the chip counts as safety to you). Certainly not to protect the people around it.

[–] hackeraccount 2 days ago

You think people wouldn't object to building a datacenter in undeveloped (or pristine as it would be called) desert? I honestly think they'll object to building them in space.