Comment by bigbadfeline

3 months ago

> This is a solved engineering problem for this kind of missions.

Which mission of this kind exemplifies the solution? Where's the datacenter in the sky to which I can point my telescope?

> Whether they can make it work within the power and budget constraints is the actual challenge, but that's economics.

It's a weird world, where economics isn't a fundamental part of engineering, any engineering proposal's got to include it, much more one that has never been done beopre.

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bigbadfeline

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ben_w  3 months ago

> Which mission of this kind exemplifies the solution? Where's the datacenter in the sky to which I can point my telescope?

Big bunch of satellites communicating with each other?

Starlink.

Specifically Bus F9-2 and Bus F9-3 have PV arrays about the size needed for the upper limit of what I read a single DC rack might use (max 25kW, someone correct me if it is ever higher than that). That's what's being proposed here, making a DC by making each rack its own satellite.

Section 2.1 is seeing what data link is needed between satellites, and what you can actually get with realistic limitations, and how close the satellites need to be to make this work.

  • bigbadfeline  3 months ago

    > single DC rack might use (max 25kW, someone correct me)

    25kW? Don't tell me your engineers used that number in their calculations.

    Reality:

    GB200 NVL72 - 120 kW per rack

    GB300 NVL72 - 150 kW per rack

    Weight - 3,000–3,500 lbs per rack

    Cost of liquid cooling on Earth - $50,000 per rack

    by 2027 the new 800V-HVDC will be deployed - 1 MW per rack

    I'd never imagined I'd be providing free engineering consultations to billionaires.

    • ben_w  3 months ago

      > 25kW? Don't tell me your engineers used that number in their calculations.

      Thanks!

      There's a reason why I phrased it as uncertainly as I did:

      I (ironically given context) googled something like "maximum power draw of data center rack" and the first few results all agreed with each other at 25 kW.

      > I'd never imagined I'd be providing free engineering consultations to billionaires.

      I never thought I'd be mistaken for a billionaire, but there we go.

      I'm kinda curious now, which billionaire did you mistake me for?