I don't think people's argument is that it's impossible to put data centers into space. The argument is that the downsides (radiation, cooling, maintenance, power) are so severe that it is pointless to do it at scale.

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NitpickLawyer 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Go back to the megathreads when this came up. Even here on HN. Plenty of people used the argument that it can't be done, for various reasons.

And my point was that at one point or the other there were many "downsides" for all the tech that SpaceX already has. Reusable boosters were seen as "uneconomical" and "pointless unless they can fly 10 times" by industry experts. They're now flying 30+times a booster.

LEO constellations were similarly "full of downsides" plus "all the companies that tried it went bankrupt in the 90s", so "it's pointless". And so on.

	▲	InsideOutSanta 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Reusable boosters have clear upsides, though. Pretty much everything about data centers in space is worse than having them on Earth. Apart from niche use cases, the only reason you'd talk about data centers in space is if you had a company with rocket ships and needed a story to tie your rocket ships to the current AI craze.
	▲	dogwalker5000 41 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Yet spacex is losing money … only StarLink is profitable.