News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Datacenters in space are a terrible, horrible, no good idea. Parent comment

Re:Datacenters in space are a terrible, horrible, no good idea by foobarian on Saturday November 29, 2025 @10:49PM (#46093497)
Pardon but this doesn't make sense to me. A 1 m^2 radiator in space can eliminate almost a kilowatt of heat.

>vacuum is a fucking terrible heat convector

Yes we're talking about radiating not convection

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Datacenters in space are a terrible, horrible, no good idea by wat10000 on Saturday November 29, 2025 @11:34PM (#46093759)
At what temperature?

And a kilowatt from one square meter is awful. You can do far more than that with access to an atmosphere, never mind water.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Datacenters in space are a terrible, horrible, no good idea by kergonath on Sunday November 30, 2025 @11:39AM (#46098113)
> A 1 m^2 radiator in space can eliminate almost a kilowatt of heat.

Assuming that this is the right order of magnitude, a 8MW datacenter discussed upthread would require ~8000 m^2, plus a fancy way of getting the heat there.

A kilowatt is nothing. The workstation on my desk can sustain 1 kW.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Datacenters in space are a terrible, horrible, no good idea by mercutio2 on Sunday November 30, 2025 @02:32PM (#46099632)
Why are you assuming active heat transfer? Passive is the way to go.
[ Parent | on HN ]