alt Hacker NewsThis is also the type of thing that makes space based data centers more viable. I was previously more skeptical on the concept but have come around.
I do think ground based centers will have better economics when they can be built though, and this addresses noise and water complaints which are the big 2 regional complaints.
It seems like lots of bottlenecks are getting solved quickly, except for maybe memory.
Replies
Space based data centers make no economic sense compared to land based.
The only reason is to remove them from local/regional, and potentially national/international jurisdictions.
Oh, and of course, the other reason is to give SpaceX to have a reason for xAI to be part of its structure.
Starlink makes sense, LEO comms using a mesh makes sense.
LEO/geosync satellite data processing doesn't.
This relies on transferring heat to the outdoor air. Can't do that in space.
How does that change the calculus for space datacenters? There is still no reasons or benefits to having them in space. You still have to rely solely on radiative cooling. That doesn’t solve any of the maintenance problems. Space datacenters is a really dumb and unrealistic idea Musk is talking about to hype his companies, it’s not meant to actually be done. Anything in space is more expensive and way harder to do, for a datacenter there is no benefit. We aren’t lacking places where to have them on earth