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Datacenters in space are a terrible, horrible, no good idea. (taranis.ie)
submitted 8 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 0 points 8 months ago* (14 children)

With radiators just like with every existing satellite system.

https://youtu.be/DCto6UkBJoI&t=12m57s

Very large scale datacenters would likely have some nasty fluid handling problems to solve.

I'll just note that I am not a fan of putting internet infrastructure in space. I think polluting the upper atmosphere with a bunch of metals every time a satellite deorbits will certainly have negative consequences. So IMO space should be limited to things we can't do with earthbound infrastructure.

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  • [+] 16 points 8 months ago* (4 children)
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  • [–] 4 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    The area of radiator needed directly corresponds to the amount of power harvested by the solar panels. It doesn't matter what the load is. So a compute frame with the same amount of solar panels as the space station would need approximately the same radiatot area as the ISS, unless you are bringing nuclear power into the mix.

    I agree that space based datacenters are a bad idea, but the thermals really are not the gotcha people are making them out to be.

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  • [–] 4 points 8 months ago

    The solar panels needed is another problem for the space data center fantasy. Once you put together all the mass over enough surface area to make it work, you would blot out the sun worldwide.

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  • [–] -4 points 8 months ago (9 children)

    Yeah the amount of heat a data center vs a satellite your going to super heat the space in that orbit over time. It they are geostationary then its even harder as the the data center doesn't move away from the heat.

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  • [–] 4 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    Um, it doesn't make the data center in orbit thing make sense, but a geostationary satellite absolute moves at high speed and does not stay in the same place in space.

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  • [–] -1 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    The heat would be moving at the same speed. Though, that does mean it wouldn't be any better in any other orbit.

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

    Thermal energy is primarily dissipated as infrared light which moves at the speed of light. There is no way for space to accumulate heat. If that were the case the entire solar system would be unlivable. The IR emitted by satellites is truly negligible in comparison to the electromagnetic radiation emitted by the sun.

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago

    Again, it doesn't help the case, but just.. no. The heat gets out of the spacecraft by radiating, and radiation doesn't move in a circular orbit around Earth, it moves at speed of light outwards from where it started.

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago

    Radiators in space work by radiating electromagnetic energy(light). Heat can only accumulate in matter, not in space, so that is definitely not one of the things we need to worry about.

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  • [–] 0 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    geostationary then its even harder as the the data center doesn’t move away from the heat.

    Geostationary would leave the satellite in shadow anytime it was night time over the part of the earth since a geostationary orbit is stationary in the sky over a given point at the equator.

    That doesn't solve any of the cooling problems just saying that you do get some shadow at geostationary orbits.

    There are other orbits that get less shadow though.

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago*

    It'll be in shadow at midnight, yes, but not necessarily at any other time. Geostationary orbit is at about 7x the radius of the earth.

    As such, the period when in will actually be in shadow is only a short period directly behind the planet.

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