4 ms·
A box with 1.3’ walls seems doable, actually, depending on how small the chips are. Might still be cheaper and more effective than specialized chips. But I know
by christophilus 2y ago
A box with 1.3’ walls seems doable, actually, depending on how small the chips are. Might still be cheaper and more effective than specialized chips. But I know nothing, so am probably wrong.
- xmprt 2y agoLead is extremely dense so carry 1.3' walls of lead is probably more expensive than just having more redundancy or using better quality chips.
- thelittleone 2y agoIf the only thing that effectively shields these processors from radiation is lead, concrete etc (per earlier comments), what design changes / quality improvements can compensate?
- MetaWhirledPeas 2y agoDoes liquid fuel protect as well as water? Suspend the computers in the center of the fuel tank.
- jazzyjackson 2y agoI think the trouble is such a cube would weigh 12,400 pounds (a sphere maybe more reasonable at 6,510lb - without any room for electronics inside) https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=+lead+cube+with+side+length+2.6+feet https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=+lead+cube+with+side+le...
- paledot 2y agoHah, beat me to the nerd snipe. Moreover, that sphere would cost $10k to make and, at a launch price of $1500/kg, cost $4.5 million to launch into orbit.
- bboygravity 2y agoThe aim for the launch price of the entire rocket is to be around 5 million (once it's fully re-usable and in production). Basically the price of fuel and maintenance. So something might be off with your assumption of 1500 usd / kg.
- paledot 2y agoYes, it's based in the real world. This was the Falcon 9 launch price that I could come up with in the amount of time I was willing to spend on a shitpost. I agree that launch prices will continue to come down, but launchers will always be mass-constrained and launching lead spheres into orbit will never be a practical solution.
- bboygravity 2y agoI agree.
- m4rtink 2y agoIIRC the CPUs are much less susceptible to damage when powered-off ? So have a bunch of them in cold standby or even as additional pluggable modules on missions with humans on board & swap to good ones when needed? :)
- SmellTheGlove 2y agoHow long until they can build that massive box, stage it in orbit, and pick it up/put it down as needed? I can't decide if I'm joking or not.