5 ms·
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
by kennywinker 5mo 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 5mo agoThat'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 5mo agoSo, somehow the servers can run hot in space without a problem?
- MrMorden 5mo agoNo; 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 5mo agoIt seems like you are agreeing with me while sounding like you’re arguing with me… confusing.
- ACCount37 5mo agoRadiative 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 5mo agoThe ISS isn’t supposed to be a profitable business, and it isn’t competing with terrestrial ISS’ that can use evaporative cooling.