SpaceX filed a request with the FCC on Friday seeking approval to put a constellation of 1 million data centersatellites into orbit.
While the FCC is unlikely to approve a network that expansive, SpaceX’s strategy has been to request approval for unrealistically large numbers of satellites as a starting point for negotiations.
The filing proposes establishing a network of solar-powered data centers in low Earth orbit that communicate with one another via lasers.
The filling speaks of the constellation in ambitious sci-fi terms, calling it a “first step towards becoming a Kardashev II-level civilization — one that can harness the Sun’s full power.”
Even if just a small fraction of those 1 million satellites wind up in orbit, it would mark a significant increase in the number of man-made objects in space. The European Space Agency estimates there are around 15,000 satellites orbiting the Earth at the moment, and the majority are Starlink.
(Over 9,600 of them, according to Johnathan’s Space Report.)
When experts are already concerned about the abundance of space junk and potential for orbital collisions, such an explosion of objects in orbit would seem ill-advised. But SpaceX argues that the orbital data centers would be a cheaper and more environmentally friendly alternative to land-based centers that form the backbone of the growing AI industry. Instead of syphoning water from communities, polluting groundwater, and driving up electricity bills, orbital data centers would be able to radiate heat into the vacuum of space and rely almost exclusively on real-time solar power and limited batteries.
The backlash against data centers has been growing, and communities are increasingly winning their battles to block their construction. So it’s no surprise that the biggest names in AI are turning their attention to one of the few places where there isn’t a community to upset.
theverge.com/tech/871641/space…
SpaceX wants to put 1 million solar-powered data centers into orbit
SpaceX claims putting data centers in orbit will be cheaper and more environmentally friendly than building them on land.Terrence O'Brien (The Verge)
Mother Bones reshared this.
Chuck
in reply to Chuck Darwin • • •God save us from "autistic tech bros that think if they just tech hard enough they can create anything they have read about in a science fiction book."
Those millennials who thought "I don't have to worry about getting old, by the time I'm old we will have figured out how to live for hundreds of years." are starting to have the midlife crisis to end all midlife crises.
Ray Kelm
in reply to Chuck Darwin • • •ARGVMI~1.PIF
in reply to Chuck Darwin • • •Is the SpaceX representative aware that radiating heat into #space is extremely slow? Like, dramatically slower than even air cooling, let alone water cooling. And most data centers these days are using water cooling.
Space is basically a giant Thermos bottle, and we all know how slowly heat leaks out of a Thermos bottle. One of the main engineering problems in designing a #spacecraft is to keep its energy usage low so it doesn't cook itself.
#physics #thermodynamics
Joyce Bell 🇺🇦🇨🇦🇲🇽🇬🇱D🧊
in reply to Chuck Darwin • • •