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Comment by 3eb7988a1663

1 day ago

Let's say with no atmosphere and no night cycle, a space solar panel is 5x better. Deploying 5x as many solar panels on the ground is still going to come in way under the budget of the space equivalent.

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3eb7988a1663

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cmenge  21 hours ago

And it's not the same at all. 5x the solar panels on the ground means 5x the power output in the day, still 0 at night. So you'd need batteries. If you add in bad weather and winter, you may need battery capacity for days, weeks or even months, shifting the cost to batteries while still relying on nuclear of fossil backups in case your battery dies or some 3/4/5-sigma weather event outside what you designed for occurs.

  • Certhas  20 hours ago

    Or you put the data centers at different points on earth?

    Or you float them on the ocean circumnavigating the earth?

    Or we put the datacenters on giant Zeppelins orbiting above the clouds?

    If we are doing fantasy tech solutions to space problems, why not for a million other more sensible options?

    • cmenge  20 hours ago

      > Or you put the data centers at different points on earth? > Or you float them on the ocean circumnavigating the earth?

      What that does have to do with anything? If you want to solar-power them, you still are subject to terrestrial effects. You can't just shut off a data center at night.

      > Or we put the datacenters on giant Zeppelins orbiting above the clouds?

      They'd have to fly at 50,000+ ft to be clear of clouds, I doubt you can lift heavy payloads this high using bouyancy given the low air density. High risk to people on the ground in case of failure because no re-entry.

      > If we are doing fantasy tech solutions to space problems, why not for a million other more sensible options?

      How is this a fantasy? With Starlink operational, this hardly seems a mere 'fantasy'.

      2 replies →

mike_hearn  21 hours ago

That's with current launch costs, right? Nobody is claiming it's economic without another huge fall in launch costs, but that's what SpaceX is doing.