| ▲ | stingrae 4 hours ago |
| “A 5 GW data center would require a solar array with dimensions of approximately 4 km by 4 km” I think dodging debris is challenging at that scale. Also this is the solar cells not the radiators |
|
| ▲ | flog 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| I wonder if the shadows from such a large area would have a climate cooling effect? |
| |
| ▲ | johntb86 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Ideally you'd put it in an orbit that wouldn't shadow earth, since if it goes in front of earth in part of the orbit then it'll go behind earth (and be in shadow) for part of the orbit. They mention they'd want it in a dawn-dusk sun-synchronous orbit, which would be in sunlight all the time and would never shadow the earth. | | |
| ▲ | vl 36 minutes ago | parent [-] | | How can this practically work though? As Earth goes around the Sun 90 degrees, orbit will become half-shadowed. | | |
| |
| ▲ | glenstein 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | I think the principle is correct but probably it would need to be much bigger. |
|
|
| ▲ | FuckButtons 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| Presumably that’s not a single satellite. |
| |
| ▲ | jasonwatkinspdx 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Nope, it's a single massive panel sat and they're using $30/kg as their launch costs. Up to you how plausible you think that is. | |
| ▲ | efskap 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Right, the goal here is a more realistic Dyson swarm, not a Dyson sphere (yet) |
|
