3 ms·

Ah yes: computation. Famous for annihilating water. Every bit you flip consumes an H2O molecule.

kennywinker 4mo ago
Well, how do you cool servers in space then? Evaporative cooling is the way it happens down on earth - and that shuttles h2o molecules from dense useful clumps like aquifers and rivers to a less useful form spread out in the air. But evaporating h2o isn’t an option in space afaik - since there’s a shortage of air to take up the h2o. In fact I think radiative cooling is the only actual option in space.
- MrMorden 4mo ago
  That's the neat thing: you don't, or at least not in the megawatt range. A kilowatt can be done with radiative cooling but doesn't get you far with a hypothetical datacenter satellite.
  - kennywinker 4mo ago
    So, somehow the servers can run hot in space without a problem?
    - MrMorden 4mo ago
      No; if you try to do this you don't launch in the first place because the amount of servers required to be useful can't be cooled within your payload budget.
      - kennywinker 4mo ago
        It seems like you are agreeing with me while sounding like you’re arguing with me… confusing.
- ACCount37 4mo ago
  Radiative cooling. When something gets hot, it begins to radiate that heat away - black body radiation. Fucking hell - do you all think ISS is cooled by hopes and prayers? Starlink V3 sats have to dump ~20kW of pure waste heat just to exist. Going from that to the stated 100kW is an engineering task, not some sort of impossible arcane rite.
  - kennywinker 4mo ago
    The ISS isn’t supposed to be a profitable business, and it isn’t competing with terrestrial ISS’ that can use evaporative cooling.
etc-hosts 4mo ago
My job is mostly worrying about cooling paths, maintenance, power, heat transfer, lifetime of GPUs, and high performance networks. NVIDIA partner. I can drive to the datacenter. This stuff BARELY works here on Earth. Especially thermal issues. Looking forward to watching spacex defeat physics.
- ACCount37 4mo ago
  Skill issue. Starlink V3 bus already has to dispose of ~20kW of waste heat from the electronics - because RF amps aren't that great at what they do. That's a ~2020 server rack, in SPACE. Going from that to a 2026 server rack is engineering, not magic.

Well, how do you cool servers in space then? Evaporative cooling is the way it happens down on earth - and that shuttles h2o molecules from dense useful clumps like aquifers and rivers to a less useful form spread out in the air. But evaporating h2o isn’t an option in space afaik - since there’s a shortage of air to take up the h2o. In fact I think radiative cooling is the only actual option in space.

MrMorden 4mo ago
That's the neat thing: you don't, or at least not in the megawatt range. A kilowatt can be done with radiative cooling but doesn't get you far with a hypothetical datacenter satellite.
- kennywinker 4mo ago
  So, somehow the servers can run hot in space without a problem?
  - MrMorden 4mo ago
    No; if you try to do this you don't launch in the first place because the amount of servers required to be useful can't be cooled within your payload budget.
    - kennywinker 4mo ago
      It seems like you are agreeing with me while sounding like you’re arguing with me… confusing.
ACCount37 4mo ago
Radiative cooling. When something gets hot, it begins to radiate that heat away - black body radiation. Fucking hell - do you all think ISS is cooled by hopes and prayers? Starlink V3 sats have to dump ~20kW of pure waste heat just to exist. Going from that to the stated 100kW is an engineering task, not some sort of impossible arcane rite.
- kennywinker 4mo ago
  The ISS isn’t supposed to be a profitable business, and it isn’t competing with terrestrial ISS’ that can use evaporative cooling.

etc-hosts 4mo ago

My job is mostly worrying about cooling paths, maintenance, power, heat transfer, lifetime of GPUs, and high performance networks. NVIDIA partner. I can drive to the datacenter. This stuff BARELY works here on Earth. Especially thermal issues. Looking forward to watching spacex defeat physics.

ACCount37 4mo ago
Skill issue. Starlink V3 bus already has to dispose of ~20kW of waste heat from the electronics - because RF amps aren't that great at what they do. That's a ~2020 server rack, in SPACE. Going from that to a 2026 server rack is engineering, not magic.