Sundar Pichai says Google will start building data centers in space, powered by the sun, in 2027
https://www.businessinsider.com/google-project-suncatcher-sundar-pichai-data-centers-space-solar-2027-2025-11Open linkView original on mander.xyzhttps://www.businessinsider.com/google-project-suncatcher-sundar-pichai-data-centers-space-solar-2027-2025-11Open linkView original on mander.xyz
While I don't doubt that we will, at some point, have something like data centers in space, it kinda seems like a bad idea right now. Doing some searching, it looks like the cost to send something to orbit, using SpaceX's Falcon Heavy is something around $1,500/kg. 1, 2 For a server which weighs 2-3 kg, that's adding a significant cost on top of the expensive hardware costs already involved. Though, on the plus side, without the environmental impact and lawsuits from local opposition, this cost could balance out.
Then they need to deal with cooling. Keeping data centers cool is already a challenge. One of the main reasons communities have been lining up against data centers is their water usage, which is used for cooling. In space, you can't just tap into the nearest water supply. Radiative cooling sucks, sure you could just build a bigger radiator, but that's more mass you need to send to orbit, more complexity and something else you need to worry about micro-meteors slamming into. The International Space Station already uses a large, complex system for cooling and it has nothing like the internal heating of hundreds of GPUs churning out furry porn.
Lastly, maintenance is going to be a bitch. Granted, Microsoft has show that it is possible to run a lights-out data center effectively by dropping it in the ocean. Though, the fact that we don't see more of that tells me that the economics of it likely don't pencil out well compared to just paving over more farmland and ignoring the poors whining about things like fresh water.
This really seems like one of those ideas where someone needs to tell Mr. Pichai to put the bong down for a bit.
Without robots capable of opening up a server and fixing it remotely. They will need to over allocate servers in the space data center which means even more weight and cost. This is less of an issue when dumping it in the ocean, but a big issue when sending to orbit.
At the end of the day, this is a pure marketing stunt, hoping to get new investor money/steal from peoples retirement.
And to steal from all of us by getting government funding.
out of sunlight orbital temps are -100C. But thet need hardware to withstand -100C to 120C. Or, they will use a stationary orbit, but that means no sunlight.
This sounds like an idea floated to ChatGPT. Great! would you like me to write up a business plan?
Empty space really doesn't have a temperature. Since there is no medium you can't transfer heat by convection or conduction, so you definitely would need a specialised cooling system that can dispose of all the heat via radiation alone.
This is why I mentioned how much radiative cooling sucks. Yes, space is really, really cold. It's also really, really empty. The only time a difference in temperature matters is when you have objects at different temperatures in contact. Then the hotter object can transfer energy to the colder object. In space, there is almost nothing for the hot object to be in contact with, so it cannot transfer heat that way. It will radiate heat, but that is slow. Spacesuits use systems which sublimate water to carry that heat away. But that system means having to replenish the liquid constantly. That's fine for one human's worth of heat on a spaceflight. For a data center, that will be a massive amount of liquid.
Ya, they'll want the sunlight. One of the big benefits of space based stuff is 24x7 solar power. And sunlight which hasn't been scattered by an atmosphere. The energy density of sunlight in orbit is several times the energy density of sunlight on the ground of Earth. More, if you are comparing it to the higher latitudes where the oblique angle of incidence makes the light less concentrated. It's the main reason space based solar arrays beaming power back to the ground via microwaves or lasers was actually considered. If access to space was cheap enough, it could become economically viable. Though, probably not soon. But, all that extra power in the sunlight also makes cooling even harder.
No he won't. It's very hard to keep things cool in space. Yes, space is very cold, but there isn't an atmosphere to radiate heat into. Datacemters notoriously need lots of power and cooling. They can get the power from solar, but the cooling won't be so easy.
Plus radiation is a bitch for any computation purposes: https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/11/space-grade-cpus-how-do-you-send-more-computing-power-into-space/
Riiiiight
They should send CEOs into space.
They do it willingly, but they always come back
"We are going to EXTRACT THE SUN"
Im sorta curious about this as I know processors are pretty sensitive to radiation. Then you have the whole issue with technology becoming obsolete.
Well, I guess at least some of our knowledge & culture has a chance of being discovered long after we've destroyed ourselves.
Go for it. Means less data centers sucking up all our water and electricity down here on earth.
yeah then you could just deorbit obsoleted hardware and hope that kesler syndrome doesn't take out your server farm first lol
The ultimate tax/laws evasion scheme.