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marcosdumaytoday at 1:55 AM1 replyview on HN

> aka fancy air conditioning pumps

Yeah, pumps, tubes, and fluids are some of the worst things to add to a satellite. It's probably cheaper to use more radiators.

Maybe it's possible to make something economical with Peltier elements. But it's still not even a budget problem yet, it's not plainly not viable.

> getting quite good here with nanotechnology

Small features and fractal surfaces are useless here.


Replies

aunty_helentoday at 2:13 AM

My dude, heat pipes were invented for satellites and there’s people walking around with piezo pumps in their phones these days. We’re getting close.

Peltiers generate a lot of heat to get the job done so even though electricity is pretty much free, probably not a sure bet.