this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2025
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62
An in-space construction firm says it can help build massive data centers in orbit (arstechnica.com)
submitted 18 hours ago by Apparatus@programming.dev to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 1 points 5 minutes ago* (last edited 2 minutes ago)

Well ok, that in the picture would be the ideal case, in two layers. solar cells in the front for energy production + sunblock, heat dissipation on the cold side in the back, large surfaces.

But a computing center in orbit is still unpractical for many reasons. Why not on mars? It's even farther away and too cold anyway.

[–] HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.org 1 points 29 minutes ago* (last edited 28 minutes ago)

What should that babble even mean?

In a data center, you have 4 main problems:

  1. Get an massive amount of computers there, and maintain them to keep working, including repairs and upgrades
  2. Get an massive amount of data there and the results back
  3. Get a constant and massive flow of electrical power there
  4. Get an equally massive amount of heat away from it.

Being in orbit helps with exactly none of that. For example, the heat: In orbit, there is no air or water which would work as a cooling medium, but just a vacuum which cools almost nothing. It is like a vacuum flask. Get your smart phone when running hot in such a vacuum flask and tell me how it worked....

So what is the purpose of all that bullshit??

[–] Chessmasterrex@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

News headline in the future: "Orbital Data Center Crashes Into Los Angeles in a Mass Casualty Event"

[–] yetAnotherUser@discuss.tchncs.de 13 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

Me too. I'll even make them full AI.

Please send me $2 billion by Tuesday. My salary as yetAnotherUser CEO & CTO is a modest 20 million/year. Results are expected to appear by 2030.

[–] Valmond@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

Hey hey, I'll make them on Mars! Send the cash to me instead!

[–] monkeyslikebananas2@lemmy.world 9 points 6 hours ago

Hey Gemini, make me a business plan, a marketing site and some presentations with fancy graphs.

[–] mski@lemmy.ca 1 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

Even if this was an economically sound proposal, the next X45 magnitude solar flare might be a nasty surprise for reliability metrics...

Edit: at some point, this would also likely contribute to Kessler Syndrome, but at least we'd have chat bots.

[–] palordrolap@fedia.io 12 points 13 hours ago

In before someone wants to reboot a server and the hypervisor is unresponsive.

[–] dogslayeggs@lemmy.world 39 points 18 hours ago (3 children)

Getting rid of the heat is going to be an issue for that... along with the massive pollution from the many launches required to get this in orbit.

[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 hours ago

Kessler syndrome goes brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[–] db2@lemmy.world 25 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

The heat will just dissipate in the air, and they can launch it at night when it's colder. Science!

/s in case, there are a few mouth breathers out today

[–] psoul@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

They could build them so that they stay in perpetual dawn or dusk. One edge with the solar panels in the su, the other edge with the cooling fins in the night’s cool breeze.

[–] Urist@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

Geostationary orbit is far higher than low earth orbit and I would assume following earths twilight zone would not be much better. I do not see why you would either, with reaction wheels you could orient the satellites towards the sun regardless of the relative position of the earth, with the caveat that earth may block the sun which is hard to avoid entirely anyways.

Also, there is not that much cool breeze in space, famously known for not having vast amounts of air (still have IR-radiation to help though).

Edit: Probably ate the onion, didn't I?

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io -4 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

I'm pretty sure they're aware of the need for radiators. They've probably designed satellites before.

[–] FishFace@lemmy.world 1 points 35 minutes ago

Nobody thinks they're incapable of working this out; we think theyre deliberately advertising something dumb that lay people won't necessarily understand is dumb. Replying that they have smart engineers is stupid because no-one denied it - we just don't think they used those engineers to come up with the idea.

[–] vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

yes but they're not trying to dissipate megawatts usually

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 3 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Again, I'm pretty sure they're aware that you need bigger radiators when you're using more energy. This is space engineering 101.

[–] vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

literal kilometers of panels and radiators. No. It won't happen

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

If only they'd hired you, they would have known.

[–] vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

well any actual engineer who isn't trying to sell them will readily tell you that a datacenter in space is a very bad idea.

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 1 points 1 hour ago (2 children)

They'd better not try to sell them to anyone who has access to an engineer, then. Just a single engineer will bring the whole scheme crashing down.

[–] vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

for starters, at the loads they're running at, they have literally hundreds of gpu failures a day. How do you propose doing that in space?

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 0 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Include spares.

I hope they're reading this thread and taking notes, they probably didn't think of that.

[–] vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

and the infrastructure and robotics to replace them, of course.

Assuming 200 nvidia H100 failures a day (conservativo, reality is worse) that's an extra ~340kg of weight you'd need to launch per day. Which is an extra 120 tons yearly.

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 1 points 1 hour ago

So, one Starship launch per year. Doesn't sound like a problem.

[–] vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

and forget about running 4nm chips in space. shit has to be radiation hardened, which means bigger process nodes and higher energy cost, and lower speed

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 0 points 1 hour ago

Another thing they probably didn't think of. Nobody's run chips in space before.

[–] UnfortunateShort@lemmy.world 18 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Free advice: The economics don't work out.

[–] WanderingThoughts@europe.pub 7 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

We just need to invent space construction, cheap fusion power, autonomous robotics, improve AI and set up astroid mining first, then it'll be a snap.

[–] vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 4 hours ago

and figure out cooling without having to constantly be resupplying them with water, of course.

[–] Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours ago

Honestly, it's hard to figure out what the first step in that chain is. If you want to start up industry in space, great, there are lot of potential benefits to that. But where do you start?

Within the next 50 years I do expect a broad sector of space industry to emerge, but I really can't predict what the first opportunities might be. Still, we can poke fun at it all we want right now, but I suspect a great many people will be working in space 50 years from now.

[–] oftenawake@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 13 hours ago

Welp, that's a fuckin stupid idea. Next!

[–] Damage@feddit.it 6 points 13 hours ago

Yeah me too! Give me money.

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 19 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

Data centers in the ocean didn't work out. This doesn't seem smarter

[–] Akrenion@slrpnk.net 2 points 7 hours ago

Wasn't the Mocrosoft test run very successful?

[–] Twongo@lemmy.ml 14 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Imagine getting sent up because a pos rj45 cable got hit by a micrometeorite

[–] Big_Boss_77@lemmynsfw.com 4 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Because they swore the server was powered on...

[–] IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world 5 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

Back when the capacitor plague hit I had to manage locating & replacing over 500 motherboards in the datacenter of my then-employer. Imagine if a hardware glitch like that happened in one of these.

[–] Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 4 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

I had some of these bad capacitors blow in my video card, back in the day. I was extremely proud of myself for managing to order some replacement capacitors and soldering them in myself.

The most impressive part might be that I ordered the right items. I knew nothing about electronics repair at the time, I just wanted to be able to play World of Warcraft again.

[–] SreudianFlip@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 hours ago

I think you have the start of a good plotline for a sf comedy.

[–] reddig33@lemmy.world 4 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Isn’t this how Skynet started?

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 4 points 16 hours ago

No, it started when a scriptwriter came up with an idea for a movie that would sell a lot of tickets.

[–] Evil_Shrubbery@thelemmy.club 2 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Do you want furries in space??

Bcs that is how you get furries in space.

[–] b_tr3e@feddit.org 1 points 16 hours ago

Now Elon can have his own death star!

[–] P1k1e@lemmy.world 0 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

FUCK OFF Thank you

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 1 points 16 hours ago

> People complain about the environmental footprint of data centers.

> Companies attempt to move the data centers outside the environment.

> People complain even harder.

What do you want?