@VraserX: Space data centers are not impossible. Elon’s timeline is the bullshit part. Google is actually working on this. Even i…
Summary
Discusses the feasibility of space data centers, arguing that Elon Musk's timeline is unrealistic while Google projects commercial viability only by the mid-2030s due to high launch costs and engineering challenges like heat dissipation, radiation, and hardware replacement.
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Cached at: 07/13/26, 08:03 AM
Space data centers are not impossible. Elon’s timeline is the bullshit part.
Google is actually working on this. Even its optimistic analysis says launch prices need to fall below $200 per kg before orbital compute starts looking competitive. Today they are still in the thousands, and Google projects that threshold only by the mid 2030s.
Then comes the engineering. Space is cold, but a vacuum cannot carry heat away. Every watt from a GPU must ultimately leave through massive radiators, and nothing close to data center scale has ever flown. Add radiation, shielding, huge solar arrays, extreme bandwidth requirements and hardware failures.
On Earth, technicians replace dead GPUs. In orbit, dead hardware stays dead unless you launch replacements or develop autonomous repair systems that do not exist at this scale. Meanwhile, new AI hardware arrives every year.
Flying a prototype next year is believable. That proves a chip can run in space. It does not prove orbital data centers make economic sense.
Commercial scale is a mid 2030s project at the absolute earliest, probably later. Right now this is investor fan fiction.
Too big and heavy and too expensive. Weight equals costs.
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