Sure it varies a bit. ISS average skin temp is 10C, for example.

The total available energy from the sun in LEO averages about 1.36KW/m^2, and more than this is radiated away by current deployed technology.

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overfeed a day ago | parent [-]

> Sure it varies a bit

No, not just a bit. It varies by hundreds of degrees depending on the materials α/ε ratio.

Your mental model is off: materials that good absorbers but poor emitters will get very hot, and the flip-side stay cool, and are used to make the cooling elements in the ISS . The temperature of ball of black nickel at 1 AU will settle at balmy 239C - not -18C. Polished Aluminum -> roughly 145C.

	▲	robotresearcher a day ago \| parent [-]
		I’ve made a note not to make my space data center a black nickel sphere, and instead to make it like we generally make satellites. My nickel guy is gonna be so disappointed. I do understand the correction, so thank you. Doesn’t change my point at all, and I fear we are talking past each other so I’ll call it a day.