Datacenters in space are a terrible, horrible, no good idea

Re:Datacenters in space are a terrible, horrible, no good idea by foobarian on Saturday November 29, 2025 @10:28PM (#46093364)

I think it is an advantage, the question is just how big, and assume we look only at ongoing operation cost.

- Earth temperatures are variable, and radiation only works at night

- The required radiator area is much smaller for the space installation

- The engineering is simple: CPU -> cooler -> liquid -> pipe -> radiator. We're assuming no constraint on capex so we can omit heat pumps

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Re:Datacenters in space are a terrible, horrible, no good idea by Hikikomori on Saturday November 29, 2025 @11:36PM (#46093768)

Radiators on earth mainly do it to air, there's no air in space.

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Re:Datacenters in space are a terrible, horrible, no good idea by noselasd on Sunday November 30, 2025 @07:59AM (#46096288)

A typical CPU heatsink dissipates 10-30% of heat through radiation, and the rest through convection. In space you're in a vacuum so you can't disipated heat through convection.

You need to rework your physical equipment quite substantially to make up for the fact you can't shed 70-90% of the heat in the same manner as you can down here on Earth

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