| ▲ | etempleton 6 hours ago | |
From another rationalist perspective, it will always be cheaper to run a data center somewhere on earth under any conceivable scenario. It would be easier and cheaper to put a data center in the ocean. Just a few of the significant issues: 1. Selling an old compute unit is a significant cost savings when they are replaced every five years. In space you basically have to write them off. 2. Cooling in space is limited. Not impossible but limited. And these things throw off massive amounts of heat. You are talking about huge heat sinks which take valuable space and add massive weight that limits space on the rocket. 3. The size per data center will be relatively minuscule OR they somehow have to assemble in space adding additional complexity. 4. Any launch, deployment, connectivity, or hardware failure is a total loss. So you have to account for that. | ||