Comment by hamburglar
17 hours ago
Seems prudent to achieve fully robotic datacenters on earth before doing it in space. I know, I’m a real wet blanket.
17 hours ago
Seems prudent to achieve fully robotic datacenters on earth before doing it in space. I know, I’m a real wet blanket.
If mass is going to be as cheap as is needed for this to work anyway, there's no reason you can't just use people like in a normal datacenter.
Space is very bad for the human body, you wouldn't be able to leave the humans there waiting for something to happen like you do on earth, they'd need to be sent from earth every time.
Also, making something suitable for humans means having lots of empty space where the human can walk around (or float around, rather, since we're talking about space).
Underwater welder, though being replaced by drone operator, is still a trade despite the health risks. Do you think nobody on this whole planet would take a space datacenter job on a 3 month rotation?
I agree that it may be best to avoid needing the space and facilities for a human being in the satellite. Fire and forget. Launch it further into space instead of back to earth for a decommission. People can salvage the materials later.
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The economics don't work the same on earth.
What makes the economics better in space?
Are there any unique use-cases waiting to be unleashed?
Regular maintenance methods are cheap on earth and infeasible in space.
Keep in mind economics is all about allocation of scarce resources with alternative uses.