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Google Gearing Up to Launch Experimental "Data Center" Into Space Next Week (futurism.com)
submitted 1 month ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 17 points 1 month ago (4 children)

That's just what we need, a single individual server in space with incredibly long latency times. Really useful technology. This brilliant idea is brought to you by the same people that came up with the totally workable idea of mirrors in space to charge for sunlight.

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  • [+] -7 points 1 month ago (3 children)

    I'm not going to say it's brilliant, but if they can stick computers out there that get unlimited free solar power and free cooling courtesy of the icy death vacuum of space, is it really that bad?

    If they could make it operational and scale, no more fucking stupid terrestrial data centers eating water and power here. Let them try it. They got plenty of money.

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  • [–] 16 points 1 month ago

    and free cooling courtesy of the icy death vacuum of space, is it really that bad?

    Yes. You don't get cooling AND vacuum from space, the vacuum aspect prevents the majority of cooling since there's nothing to take that heat away other than IR radiation.

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  • [–] 12 points 1 month ago

    free cooling courtesy of the icy death vacuum of space

    Cooling in space is actually really hard. The only way to get rid of heat out there is to radiate it away as black body radiation, which is a really really slow process. It’s like wrapping your computer in a really really thick blanket.

    The solar power is the only thing space has going for it.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago

    You can put solar panels on earth based data centers, you could have closed loop cooling systems on earth-based data centers. The location of the data centers isn't the problem, it's the fact they're not doing any of that that's a problem.

    We need to stop subsidizing them. If they have the money to launch things into orbit then they have the money to build out sustainable infrastructure here on planet Earth.

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