Two reasons why it makes sense (really really good reasons):

1) Water scarcity and energy scarcity here on earth

2) It will drive down launch costs and promotes investment in orbital facilities and launch capabilities.

those two reasons alone are enough.

What does water scarcity have to do with anything? Data centers don't use water. They slightly heat it, and then it flows back out to whatever it would have done anyway.

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notepad0x90 3 hours ago | parent [-]

They need fresh water which is scarce unlike salt water, once they use it, it can't be used for anything else. They're competing with water supplies of municipalities these days. Not a big deal if you're near the great lakes or the missisipi, but a big deal in california, arizona, utah,etc.. and that's just the US. There are places that are becoming unlivable because of water supply issues, and datacenters are needing to be built near them.

	▲	adastra22 41 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		> once they use it, it can't be used for anything else This is not true!