Building data centers in space has to be the stupidest shit I've ever read

17 days ago by jaykrown to c/general

I think we have an obligation to halt any development of data centers in space. While climate change is set to destroy our future, we can't afford to be focused on that bullshit.

yesman 17 points 17 days ago

The thing that makes data centers in space stupid is physics.

nevermind the expense of launching, maintaining, or upgrading server racks 500km above the ground. How the hell are you going to cool them?

I've seen scifi proposals about liquids in a cooling loop being exposed to the vacuum of space. But you still have to ask, why spend a billion dollars for a tech that can't compete with a 120mm fan back on Earth?

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impairedimperator -8 points 17 days ago

Because we can.

While this particular use case is stupid, with the exception of mildly conspiratorial Elysium-type assumptions, overcoming the problem of effective cooling in space is necessary for future space projects. This provides a testing platform for solving the problem.

I always wondered, why not have essentially heat batteries? You could use something like a heat pump to dump heat into a thermal mass for the short term. Maybe use those to power a Stirling generator in a central location? Be like stopping for gas, but also switching out your heat block? Or, maybe like a fuel pre-heater? Heck, you could even have just a high heat capacity material that you dump heat into and then vent superheated matter for fine control thrusters?

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BradleyUffner 7 points 17 days ago

This post illustrates a serious lack of knowledge and understanding of how heat transfer and thermodynamic systems work outside of a sci-fi setting.

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impairedimperator 0 points 16 days ago

Heat can be stored, ya know. Doesn't all have to be radiated at once.

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BradleyUffner 5 points 16 days ago

Yes, it can. You still have to get rid of it eventually though, and do it faster than it's being generated. That's the problem in space. Look at the cooling required here in Earth, with an atmosphere and ready access to water. Now try doing that in space with none of that, using current or even near-future tech.

As an example, you talk about ejecting mass to get rid of heat. The most practical material to use would actually be water. A small 10MW data center would need about 250 TONS of water per day to absorbe that much heat (iron would need over 1000 tons). It would cost over 38 million dollars per day to replace that water and nearly 150 million for the iron. And that's just for one small data center.

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Peppycito 17 points 17 days ago

Yes. Space: the final frontier of capitalism. By providing cheap access to space, Spacex was counting on new markets being created and everyone would want to launch their own satellite. Turns out the only use cases for space are science, war, and tourism. They need more than those industries offer to make their rocket systems worth it, so they've come up with the bullshittiest problem to solve, data centers IN SPACE

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Malica 4 points 16 days ago

They're monumental idiots. I can't believe people actually think rich=smart.

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Hamartiogonic 3 points 17 days ago

What about vaccinations spreading magnetic microchips or 5G towers spreading a biological virus? I think it’s pretty hard to beat that level of stupidity.

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4am 4 points 17 days ago

Yeah but no one was doing it

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Hamartiogonic 1 point 17 days ago

But people did respond with real actions to a thing that wasn’t happening. The allegation was dumb, but doing something about it was even dumber.

Nobody was using the towers to spread viruses, but people attacked those towers regardless.

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myyass 0 points 16 days ago