3 ms·

DGX H200 is 10,2 kW. So that like 10 of them. Or only 80 H200. Doesn’t sound like a big data center. More like a server room. ISS radiators are huge 13.6x3.1 m

DGX H200 is 10,2 kW. So that like 10 of them. Or only 80 H200. Doesn’t sound like a big data center. More like a server room. ISS radiators are huge 13.6x3.1 m. Each radiates 35 kW. So you need 3 of them to have your 100 kW target. They are also filled with gas that needs pumping so not exactly a passive system and as such can break down for a whole lot of reasons. You also need to collect that power so you need about the same amount of power coming from solar panels. ISS solar array wings are 35x12 m and can generate about 31 kW of power. So we’ll need at least 3 of them. BTW each weighs a ton, a literal metric ton. It hardly seems feasible. Huge infrastructure costs for small AI server rooms in space.

diabllicseagull 8mo ago
if I may add, you can't really launch a station three times the size of ISS with a single rocket so there will be multiple launches. Just the launch costs alone could likely finance multiple similarly sized server rooms on land.
- pointlessone 8mo ago
  It should be smaller than ISS. IIRC, ISS has three solar arrays and two radiators. DGX is about the size of a fridge. Let’s add two more fridges worth of infra for solar and radiator. Maybe another fridge for comms. But these three fridges replace all the modules of ISS. It’s still gonna be about 6 (maybe up to 10?) tons of mass to lift. But Starship can do 100-150 tons to LEO so might be doable.
  - shagie 8mo ago
    What is the power budget for that DGX. The power budget for ISS is 75–90 kW. If your DGX fridge needs more power, it will need similar capacity of solar and radiators. https://www.goldmansachs.com/insights/articles/rising-power-density-disrupts-ai-infrastructure https://www.goldmansachs.com/insights/articles/rising-power-... > In 2027, the unified approach will almost certainly be taken to new levels as NVIDIA's “Kyber” system will launch, with 576 GPUs in a single rack requiring a whopping 600 kW, equivalent to delivering enough power for 500 US homes into the space of a filing cabinet. That fridge needs 600 kW of power. That will require 6x more solar panel space than the ISS and 6x more radiators. It's not about the volume of the object but rather its power and heat budgets. If that fridge can reject all of the heat from the rack in space, it will work much better on earth and all the data centers would be using that fridge instead of their cooling towers and AC.
    - pointlessone 8mo ago
      DGX is only 10,2 kW. But also only 8 H200s. Kyber seems a bit more power efficient (per-GPU) but requires much more power for a single unit. With that power requirement it doesn’t seem like it will fly.
      - shagie 8mo ago
        10 kW is something that could be household load (a backup generator for a home when there's a power outage). If one could put a DGX in my basement without issue (there's an idea - would you trust me with a DGX rack in my basement for six months for winter heating? https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/27/data-centers-ai-district-heating-aws-amazon-ireland.html https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/27/data-centers-ai-district-hea... ), what is the value of shipping it into space? Granted, I couldn't afford a DGX in my basement... but it's not one DGX that you're putting in a datacenter, but rather racks upon racks of aisles upon aisles. Putting a dozen DGX into space and needing the solar and radiator capacity of the ISS doesn't necessarily seem like the best value proposition. And also noting that the ISS has people onboard that do repairs to exactly those systems ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maintenance_of_the_International_Space_Station#2010_–_Failure_in_cooling_loop_A https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maintenance_of_the_Internation... or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maintenance_of_the_International_Space_Station#2011–2012_–_Failure_of_Main_Bus_Switching_Unit_#1_and_replacement_EVA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maintenance_of_the_Internation... ). If that happened to the space data center it would be "might as well deorbit it and contact our insurers."

diabllicseagull 8mo ago

if I may add, you can't really launch a station three times the size of ISS with a single rocket so there will be multiple launches. Just the launch costs alone could likely finance multiple similarly sized server rooms on land.

pointlessone 8mo ago
It should be smaller than ISS. IIRC, ISS has three solar arrays and two radiators. DGX is about the size of a fridge. Let’s add two more fridges worth of infra for solar and radiator. Maybe another fridge for comms. But these three fridges replace all the modules of ISS. It’s still gonna be about 6 (maybe up to 10?) tons of mass to lift. But Starship can do 100-150 tons to LEO so might be doable.
- shagie 8mo ago
  What is the power budget for that DGX. The power budget for ISS is 75–90 kW. If your DGX fridge needs more power, it will need similar capacity of solar and radiators. https://www.goldmansachs.com/insights/articles/rising-power-density-disrupts-ai-infrastructure https://www.goldmansachs.com/insights/articles/rising-power-... > In 2027, the unified approach will almost certainly be taken to new levels as NVIDIA's “Kyber” system will launch, with 576 GPUs in a single rack requiring a whopping 600 kW, equivalent to delivering enough power for 500 US homes into the space of a filing cabinet. That fridge needs 600 kW of power. That will require 6x more solar panel space than the ISS and 6x more radiators. It's not about the volume of the object but rather its power and heat budgets. If that fridge can reject all of the heat from the rack in space, it will work much better on earth and all the data centers would be using that fridge instead of their cooling towers and AC.
  - pointlessone 8mo ago
    DGX is only 10,2 kW. But also only 8 H200s. Kyber seems a bit more power efficient (per-GPU) but requires much more power for a single unit. With that power requirement it doesn’t seem like it will fly.
    - shagie 8mo ago
      10 kW is something that could be household load (a backup generator for a home when there's a power outage). If one could put a DGX in my basement without issue (there's an idea - would you trust me with a DGX rack in my basement for six months for winter heating? https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/27/data-centers-ai-district-heating-aws-amazon-ireland.html https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/27/data-centers-ai-district-hea... ), what is the value of shipping it into space? Granted, I couldn't afford a DGX in my basement... but it's not one DGX that you're putting in a datacenter, but rather racks upon racks of aisles upon aisles. Putting a dozen DGX into space and needing the solar and radiator capacity of the ISS doesn't necessarily seem like the best value proposition. And also noting that the ISS has people onboard that do repairs to exactly those systems ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maintenance_of_the_International_Space_Station#2010_–_Failure_in_cooling_loop_A https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maintenance_of_the_Internation... or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maintenance_of_the_International_Space_Station#2011–2012_–_Failure_of_Main_Bus_Switching_Unit_#1_and_replacement_EVA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maintenance_of_the_Internation... ). If that happened to the space data center it would be "might as well deorbit it and contact our insurers."