NASA's Laser Link Boasts Record-Breaking 200 Gbps Speed

Re:NASA's Laser Link Boasts Record-Breaking 200 Gbps Speed by Gustomaximus on Tuesday May 30, 2023 @08:21AM (#36123939)

Also something I haven't seen discussed yet is space servers. This has to be a great speed opportunity to orbit some server system a few hundred km above the internet sats and laser link to those rather than retrieve data back from earth.

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Re:NASA's Laser Link Boasts Record-Breaking 200 Gbps Speed by vlovich123 on Tuesday May 30, 2023 @09:36AM (#36124730)

You have to have enough long distance transmissions to make it worth it. I’m not sure that happens in practice. In other words, even if it were better, the existing status quo is good enough and has a fine price point. Earth based servers are still relatively expensive and need enough physical maintenance on a regular basis. Doing that in space becomes impossible ignoring the fact that you also have a massive cooling problem since space is one big insulator.

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Re:NASA's Laser Link Boasts Record-Breaking 200 Gbps Speed by dabluecaboose on Tuesday May 30, 2023 @01:12PM (#36127506)

Given how much trouble thermals already are for Earth-based datacenters, I can't see that being economically viable for a LONG time

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Re:NASA's Laser Link Boasts Record-Breaking 200 Gbps Speed by biomcgary on Tuesday May 30, 2023 @02:53PM (#36128966)

The edgiest hackers use Spaceflare (TM) workers at the edge of space, not just the edge of the network.

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