3 ms·
Heat pumps are used a lot in space already. They do not address data center scale heat removal.
by dekhn 1y ago
Heat pumps are used a lot in space already. They do not address data center scale heat removal.
- floxy 1y agoWhat is a good rejection temperature to use for medium earth orbit? Assuming you would orient your radiator normal to the incoming light from the sun, and normal to the earth-shine/earth-radiation. And in the shade from your PV panels. Is 50 Kelvin a reasonable temperature? Then you could radiate 1 GW of thermal energy at 350 K using a 2.5e6 m^2 surface (assuming 0.9 for emissivity). That is a square about 1.55 km on a side. Maybe reversible computing is step one in this plan.
- floxy 1y agoInterestingly enough, to get 1 GWe, using 30% efficient PV panels and assuming 1360 W/m^2 insolation, you'd also need ~2.5e6 m^2 of PV panels.
- floxy 1y agoAh, for a radiator, you can use both sides; one side exposed to the solar system north, and the other side facing south. So the 1.55 km on a side gets reduce by a factor of sqrt(2), to 1.1 km on a side.