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Comment by small_model

2 months ago

SpaceX have presented on this and it's fairly straightforward and they already do it with starlink satellites, just at a larger scale. Sound like you are the uniformed one (or an EDS victim)

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small_model

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ceejayoz  2 months ago

Starlink satellites don't generate the sort of heat a datacenter full of GPUs does. The ISS has enormous radiators, and it's only in space because it's a space station. Putting datacenters there is just goofy given the amount of available space on the ground.

  • ericd  2 months ago

    All of that has been repeatedly addressed in anything that discusses it, if you care to try to understand. It has ~nothing to do with available space, the US grid can’t handle the current rate of expansion. It’s bad enough that apparently Span, the smart electrical panel company, is pitching a box full of Blackwells that’ll sit outside new construction homes and use all the headroom on residential 200A circuits. Space is starting to look reasonable.

    Related, US readers should call their reps and ask them to support a successor to EPRA, the Energy Permitting Reform Act, the vast majority of the generation that’s waiting for approval is from clean energy sources. It nearly got over the line before the last Congress ended, and it’s one of the most impactful things we can do to combat climate change, combined with electrifying various carbon intensive activities.

    • ceejayoz  2 months ago

      > the US grid can’t handle the current rate of expansion

      This is a self defeating argument. Neither can space!

      Any scenario in which you can get data centers and power into orbit is easier on land.

      1 reply →

  • lijok  2 months ago

    Why are you comparing the output of a datacenter to the output of a single sat?

    How much power do starlink sats draw and how does it compare to say 8x H200s?

    • ceejayoz  2 months ago

      > This gives us access to more than 300 megawatts of new capacity (over 220,000 NVIDIA GPUs) within the month.

      27,500 satellites need launching - fast! - just for Claude to meet a demand spike?

      1 reply →

Sammi  2 months ago

I've heard this before and these are not comparable at all. Starlink is missing a few digits in it's power usage and heat dissipation needs compared to a datacenter.