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Does It Make Sense To Put Data Centers In Space? Can They Really Cost Less To Operate?

Scott Manley

1.8M subscribers • 4 videos on Hallway

YouTube
  • Recommended by 3 people: 3 on Hacker News.
  • Presented by Scott Manley
  • An opinion. It argues one side of a question engineers disagree on.

Intermediate. Assumes working knowledge.

502K views2 years ago3 recommendations

Cloud and DevOpsHardwareThe tech industrySRE and incidents

Scott Manley analyzes the feasibility of putting data centers in space, focusing on solar power, launch costs, and cooling challenges.

Lumen Orbit raised 2.4 million dollars from investors based on the notion of putting data centers in space, computers that could be used to train AI, or maybe mine crypto. Their argument is that at low enough launch costs the ability to get 24/7 solar power makes power much cheaper to the point that it's worth the cost of the launch: lumenorbit.com/ Follow me on Twitter for more updates: twitter.com/DJSnM I have a discord server where I regularly turn up: discord.gg/zStmKbM If you really like what I do you can support me directly through Patreon patreon.com/scottmanley

Why it's here

3 people recommend this

What people say. Recommended as a thorough debunking and analysis of the impracticality of orbital data centers, particularly regarding cooling and mass.

shantaraon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Starcloud”

Scott Manley has published a video a few months ago explaining why putting data centers in space is an absolutely terrible idea. Lumen Orbit, the company mentioned, is a former name of Starcloud. link to this video
View on Hacker News

freefaleron Hacker News • Recommends

On “Nvidia-backed Starcloud trains first AI model in space, orbital data centers”

The great Scott Manley did a video about that: link to this video basically it doesn't make sense with current technologiesa and even with Starship's proposed specs/price it won't be profitable. Check it out...
View on Hacker News

Ataraxicon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Economics of Orbital vs. Terrestrial Data Centers”

Scott Manley had a video about this last year. link to this video The short of it is that cooling is likely the biggest problem, given you will need to pump the heat to the backside and radiate it away, and the amount of mass you will need to dedicate to cooling works against deployments and increases the cost per unit significantly. Not to mention, the idea of these huge deployments runs into potential space debris issues. Whenever one of these ventures actually manages to launch a proof of concept, I think we'll be able to quickly discern if there is actually a near-future here.
View on Hacker News

tourmalinetacoon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Data center emissions probably 662% higher than big tech claims”

If you want to see exactly the type of solar panels needed for a data center (and why they’re impractical in even ideal situations) then check out this mockup of a proposed space data center ran off solar: link to this video
View on Hacker News