> I will say there's a MASSIVE cost to getting power infrastructure, land, legal stuff done on terra firma; all that just sort of .. goes away when you're deploying to space, at least if you're deploying to space early and fast.

You need both power infrastructure and structures to build within for deploying in space too. And you have to build them and then put it all into space.

Cost per square foot of land is not that high basically anywhere you could build a datacentre to offset that.

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vessenes 9 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Well some stuff you either don't need, or just can't have so you do something different - for instance, transformers to convert grid power - no grid - no transformers. Those are like a 36 month wait list in the US right now. And solar is something like 2x as efficient in space.

I agree those don't seem immediately to be huge wins to me; not dealing with local politics might be a big one, though. Depending on location. There's a lot of red tape in the world.

	▲	acdha 7 hours ago \| parent [-]
		They don’t need the grid if they’re deploying their own solar. I find it exceedingly unlikely that there is nowhere in the U.S., much less the world, that they couldn’t use some of Tesla’s battery experience to deploy a boatload of solar panels and batteries for less than the launch costs, and then have something which can be serviced or upgraded in place.

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fragmede 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

$/sq foot or meter belies the cost of dealing with every regulatory agency that has claim on that area. There's no environmental commission you've got to pay off if your satellite starts leaking noxious chemicals all over the place, the same way you'd have to if you spilled something at NUMMI in Fremont, California.