Data centers in space - future expansion opportunity for 1776 Solutions?

[Pee Cola]

One of the few modern tech YouTubers I have any time for, ExplainingComputers, has just released an interesting video about the possibility of data centers in space coming online within the next few years.

Some interesting bits of info:
- the space-based data center market is forecast to be worth around $40bn by 2035
- solar-powered
- space appears to be like international waters and data centers out there may operate outside of any country's jurisdiction

EC reckons that AI is an obvious use case due to how much computing capacity is needed to facilitate. Off-site backups are another use case.

tbh I'm not entirely convinced that space-based data centers are viable. They're going to cost a fortune to build, deploy and maintain. What happens if there's a hardware outage up there? These things will also have a finite lifespan, so what happens to them EOL? Are they just going to be taken out of orbit and dumped into the ocean, or will it end up being space junk?

Even though it could be a pipe dream, the idea of sneeding in space appeals to me for some reason. I know I'd throw a few shekels in Null's direction if he ever wanted to start a space program.

 

[General Emílio Médici]

Not gonna work due to waste heat.

Data centers are notoriously both power hogs and heat generators. The nature of current computing tech means that a lot of energy is lost to heat as the computing gets done. In space getting rid of waste heat is a fucking nightmare because you have no air or water or anything like that to be a thermal conductor and so you are forced to rely on infrared radiation. These orbital data-centers would need huge radiator panels to keep their insides cool, and if they are on Earth orbit the sun is gonna make them useless about 50% of the time.

People are better off building it in places like Iceland and Greenland with geothermal electricity and where you can just have outside air circulate to cool the thing down.

 

[Osama Bin Laden]

space gooning

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

ngl I keep wondering how long until crackheads figure out a way to achieve LOE and spacewalks, like, wrapped in trashbags taped together
just so they can start stripping the metal from satellites

 

[Super-Chevy454]

No need to imagine how LFJ and Keffals would react if someone menage to store a copy of their datas in space.

 

[Demonslayer1776]

Latency and consistency seem like an issue, not to mention the other problems other people have already mentioned. I suppose if you need alot of compute to run in the background and have high tolerance for delays in retrieval it could work, but I'd imagine it would be much cheaper, easier, and efficient to just build a Data Center out in the ocean similar to an Oil Rig.

 

[Gog & Magog]

>one gazillion ton datacenter space station flying around at 8 km/s

VS.

>one little speck of dust

 

[Daddy's Angry Juice]

Yeah yeah, that's neat and all.
But with India's space program up and running we may encounter Space Call Centers.

 

[The Connected Nose]

and if they are on Earth orbit the sun is gonna make them useless about 50% of the time.

Only if you're actively keeping the ship/station/satellite/whatever pointed where you want at all times. If you just null your rotation and do nothing else, you'll stay pointed wherever you're at through your entire orbit. So you just keep solar panels on one side, radiators on the other. The panels will be in darkness half the time so you'll need some form of battery storage, but the radiators will be able to work all the time since they'll never be facing the sun.

 

[DumbDude43]

>satelite internet connection has high latency and low bandwidth compared to wired connections on earth
>need a fuckton of solar panels to power everything
>need a fuckton of thermal radiator panels to keep everything from melting down
>rocket launches are expensive as fuck
>can't do any maintenance or repair
>can't upgrade or replace any components

i don't think this is a very good idea

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

Yeah yeah, that's neat and all.
But with India's space program up and running we may encounter Space Call Centers.

PSSTTSH
HALLO SAAR
PSSTH
four forward
drifting to the right a little
WHAT IS YOUR MEDICARE AGE SAAR
contact right

 

[Althalus]

Not gonna work due to waste heat.

Data centers are notoriously both power hogs and heat generators. The nature of current computing tech means that a lot of energy is lost to heat as the computing gets done. In space getting rid of waste heat is a fucking nightmare because you have no air or water or anything like that to be a thermal conductor and so you are forced to rely on infrared radiation. These orbital data-centers would need huge radiator panels to keep their insides cool, and if they are on Earth orbit the sun is gonna make them useless about 50% of the time.

People are better off building it in places like Iceland and Greenland with geothermal electricity and where you can just have outside air circulate to cool the thing down.

If heat is an issue, then it makes perfect sense to build a datacenter in space, or on the moon. Just have it orbiting on the "night side" of earth or build it on the dark side of the moon, and vent waste heat outside.

Or use waste heat to support habitable cities for humans, or use it for power generation. There are quite a few options.

 

[The Mass Shooter Ron Soye]

Not gonna work due to waste heat.

Data centers are notoriously both power hogs and heat generators. The nature of current computing tech means that a lot of energy is lost to heat as the computing gets done.

>satelite internet connection has high latency and low bandwidth compared to wired connections on earth
>need a fuckton of solar panels to power everything
>need a fuckton of thermal radiator panels to keep everything from melting down
>rocket launches are expensive as fuck
>can't do any maintenance or repair
>can't upgrade or replace any components

i don't think this is a very good idea

Newer technologies will push interconnect, storage, processing, etc. picojoules per bit down by the time this shit could have a chance of happening. A "low-power" data center in space could be doable. Not all data centers are created equal. For example, "AI data centers" aren't mere servers but are doing a ton of work on the data and creating a lot more heat. "Cold storage" would need less power. Elevated cosmic and ionizing radiation aren't ideal for some storage mediums (and electronics) though.

The need to radiate the heat away is a big deal and the logistics seem terrible, but it might be possible to colocate it in a space hotel that is much larger and always has some personnel aboard. The waste heat could even be recirculated to keep the people alive. A space hotel is another thing that doesn't exist yet and has no market, so good luck with that.

The "international waters" idea is interesting but I don't think it will work well in practice. You will likely be subject to the laws of the nation you launched from, probably the United States if you are using future cheap Starships. It will be no better a piracy/data haven than what pirate services actually do, which is to play the whack-a-mole game while using services all over the planet. Putting it in spaaaaace will make it highly visible and extremely easy to track. I think the Principality of Sealand had a better chance of becoming a data haven.

If heat is an issue, then it makes perfect sense to build a datacenter in space, or on the moon. Just have it orbiting on the "night side" of earth or build it on the dark side of the moon, and vent waste heat outside.

It's a speed limit thing. If there is no atmosphere making contact (Moon has negligible atmosphere), it takes a long time for heat to radiate away in a vacuum. Some heat is radiated away while other heat is generated. You could be in a Moon shadow where it's -150 Celsius outside, and still design a data center that literally melts itself from getting too hot.

 

[mindlessobserver]

Not gonna work due to waste heat.

Data centers are notoriously both power hogs and heat generators. The nature of current computing tech means that a lot of energy is lost to heat as the computing gets done. In space getting rid of waste heat is a fucking nightmare because you have no air or water or anything like that to be a thermal conductor and so you are forced to rely on infrared radiation. These orbital data-centers would need huge radiator panels to keep their insides cool, and if they are on Earth orbit the sun is gonna make them useless about 50% of the time.

People are better off building it in places like Iceland and Greenland with geothermal electricity and where you can just have outside air circulate to cool the thing down.

You can immigrate too, and set up a business on Svalbard without a Visa. It also has geothermal potential.

Something to think about.

 

[Pelican Bones]

orbiting on the "night side" of earth or build it on the dark side of the moon

Then I just run an extension cord up to it or what?

 

[Nefarious Elliot]

Not gonna work due to waste heat.

Data centers are notoriously both power hogs and heat generators. The nature of current computing tech means that a lot of energy is lost to heat as the computing gets done. In space getting rid of waste heat is a fucking nightmare because you have no air or water or anything like that to be a thermal conductor and so you are forced to rely on infrared radiation. These orbital data-centers would need huge radiator panels to keep their insides cool, and if they are on Earth orbit the sun is gonna make them useless about 50% of the time.

People are better off building it in places like Iceland and Greenland with geothermal electricity and where you can just have outside air circulate to cool the thing down.

This.
Unless you're building something the size of a space station with gigantic liquid metal radiators the idea of running significant processing tasks in space is absurd. (May become feasible with starship, though.) Furthermore you'd either need specialty equipment or extremely heavy shielding for these devices to handle the high-radiation high-particle environment.

For a "medium-size" datacenter on earth you really only need about 2-4 technicians to be there physically. The thing is, they absolutely positively fucking need to be there. There are some problems which occur at random and will completely disable entire rows of equipment because of a stupid little GBIC or some other random ass failure. Even if you use the most absurdly expensive redundant and resistant equipment you can get your hands on, on the datacenter scale you will end up with failures that will always require human intervention. You can build monolithic viasat, vsat, starlink, and directv satellites with absurdly high price points and on-orbit spares (directv leaves multiple units in their 3 primary geostationary properties to ensure redundancy) which probably won't require human intervention, but if you try to put an entire datacenter on orbit, you're too far into the realm of complexity for the usual satellite redundancy stuff to be feasible.

Does this mean that network and server techs have a future living on small orbital installations? That would be neat. And way too fucking expensive... assuming starship is not fully operational by then.

 

[Nefarious Elliot]

If heat is an issue, then it makes perfect sense to build a datacenter in space, or on the moon. Just have it orbiting on the "night side" of earth or build it on the dark side of the moon, and vent waste heat outside.

Or use waste heat to support habitable cities for humans, or use it for power generation. There are quite a few options.

Outside of a closed loop, waste heat is not some kind of useful resource. A lunar colony will be entirely dependent on container-scale nuclear reactors anyway.

 

[MarvinTheParanoidAndroid]

Cooling datacenters in the ocean is a much better idea.

 

[Gorbino]

Well, this is Solar Freakin Roadways level of retardness

 

[DumbDude43]

If heat is an issue, then it makes perfect sense to build a datacenter in space, or on the moon. Just have it orbiting on the "night side" of earth or build it on the dark side of the moon, and vent waste heat outside.

Or use waste heat to support habitable cities for humans, or use it for power generation. There are quite a few options.

you can't "vent waste heat outside" in the vacuum of space where there is no atmosphere. the only way to get rid of it is to radiate it off, which is a very slow process.
you also can't use waste heat for power generation without some kind of heat sink, and again the only heat sink available in space would be shitty radiator panels.