3 ms·

Slightly OT, but I see the Chinese are talking about space DCs now too which would suggest they reckon it could work too. (Unlike me and others here)

by Havoc 9mo ago

hhh 9mo ago
datacenters in space are a great way to claim vast amount of viable orbit space for a stupid project to eventually sell the slot for something else when it’s rarer.
- alansaber 9mo ago
  This is basically the same argument made by people in domain-specific language models but rather than physical space (in space) it's mind-share, so actually your argument makes more sense? lol.
Galanwe 9mo ago
Not a physician, but wouldn't space be terrible for heat dissipation?
- ampersandwhich 9mo ago
  Also not a rocket surgeon, but to my understanding, modern satellites already have solar panels and radiators that account for the system's overall energy absorption and dissipation in low Earth orbit [1]. Therefore, plugging a supercomputer into the solar array instead of another instrument would likely not affect the overall heat profile meaningfully. Most energy in LEO is ultimately derived from solar irradiance and passes through the spacecraft regardless of internal usage. That said, take this with a grain of salt due to the aforementioned lack of astrochirurgical bona fides. Edit: Added some primary sources [2][3][4], including an interactive website by Andrew McCalip which lets you play around with the unit economics of orbital 'datacenters' at various price points [4]. [1] https://youtu.be/DCto6UkBJoI https://youtu.be/DCto6UkBJoI [2] https://services.google.com/fh/files/misc/suncatcher_paper.pdf https://services.google.com/fh/files/misc/suncatcher_paper.p... [3] https://starcloudinc.github.io/wp.pdf https://starcloudinc.github.io/wp.pdf [4] https://andrewmccalip.com/space-datacenters https://andrewmccalip.com/space-datacenters
  - deleted 9mo ago
    [deleted]
- preisschild 9mo ago
  Yes, you would need massive amounts of radiators
  - Incipient 9mo ago
    And solar panels. I don't think we can put 1GW+ of solar panels into orbit?
alansaber 9mo ago
I think it's more of a classic mirror move where IF they do work, they're at danger of falling behind.
- xyzsparetimexyz 9mo ago
  Falling behind? No, they're shadowing us, waiting until we make a mistake.
bgnn 9mo ago
Except none of that data center grade chips can work in the space. No GPUs, no memory, no SSD. They are not radiation-hardened (rad-hard). Rad-hard chips generally cost an oder of magnitude or more compared to normal commercial chips, and they are in general an order of magnitude less complex, plus they operate much lower frequencies. Data centers in space is straight up stupid.
numpad0 9mo ago
It can't work if you're launching from Earth. Datacenters are too heavy with or without the solar and radiator panels. If you could make those panels and chips on the Moon, Deimos, Mars, high Jupiter, wherever, then space datacenters can totally work.

Slightly OT, but I see the Chinese are talking about space DCs now too which would suggest they reckon it could work too. (Unlike me and others here)

by Havoc 9mo ago

Slightly OT, but I see the Chinese are talking about space DCs now too which would suggest they reckon it could work too. (Unlike me and others here)

hhh 9mo ago

datacenters in space are a great way to claim vast amount of viable orbit space for a stupid project to eventually sell the slot for something else when it’s rarer.

alansaber 9mo ago
This is basically the same argument made by people in domain-specific language models but rather than physical space (in space) it's mind-share, so actually your argument makes more sense? lol.

Galanwe 9mo ago

Not a physician, but wouldn't space be terrible for heat dissipation?

ampersandwhich 9mo ago
Also not a rocket surgeon, but to my understanding, modern satellites already have solar panels and radiators that account for the system's overall energy absorption and dissipation in low Earth orbit [1]. Therefore, plugging a supercomputer into the solar array instead of another instrument would likely not affect the overall heat profile meaningfully. Most energy in LEO is ultimately derived from solar irradiance and passes through the spacecraft regardless of internal usage. That said, take this with a grain of salt due to the aforementioned lack of astrochirurgical bona fides. Edit: Added some primary sources [2][3][4], including an interactive website by Andrew McCalip which lets you play around with the unit economics of orbital 'datacenters' at various price points [4]. [1] https://youtu.be/DCto6UkBJoI https://youtu.be/DCto6UkBJoI [2] https://services.google.com/fh/files/misc/suncatcher_paper.pdf https://services.google.com/fh/files/misc/suncatcher_paper.p... [3] https://starcloudinc.github.io/wp.pdf https://starcloudinc.github.io/wp.pdf [4] https://andrewmccalip.com/space-datacenters https://andrewmccalip.com/space-datacenters
- deleted 9mo ago
  [deleted]
preisschild 9mo ago
Yes, you would need massive amounts of radiators
- Incipient 9mo ago
  And solar panels. I don't think we can put 1GW+ of solar panels into orbit?

alansaber 9mo ago

I think it's more of a classic mirror move where IF they do work, they're at danger of falling behind.

xyzsparetimexyz 9mo ago
Falling behind? No, they're shadowing us, waiting until we make a mistake.

bgnn 9mo ago

Except none of that data center grade chips can work in the space. No GPUs, no memory, no SSD. They are not radiation-hardened (rad-hard). Rad-hard chips generally cost an oder of magnitude or more compared to normal commercial chips, and they are in general an order of magnitude less complex, plus they operate much lower frequencies. Data centers in space is straight up stupid.

numpad0 9mo ago

It can't work if you're launching from Earth. Datacenters are too heavy with or without the solar and radiator panels. If you could make those panels and chips on the Moon, Deimos, Mars, high Jupiter, wherever, then space datacenters can totally work.