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amluto • today at 12:22 PM • 0 replies • view on HN

This is a kind of nasty tradeoff in space. You can dissipate entropy per unit time from the same radiating area if you use a heat pump, but the heat pump itself uses power even if it’s perfect and operates at the Carnot limit, so you need a larger solar array.

There’s probably an optimum that involves a heat pump, but I don’t think it’s vastly better than not using a heat pump, and it’s certainly heavier and more complex.