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Low-orbit data centers become interesting in this context. Yes, problems with radiation, solar flares and traditional ops. But 'free' power, real estate (1) and cooling.

(1) Low orbit real estate may be a future battleground?

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There is no free cooling in the space. It is actually harder to cool something in the space than in Sahara, because you have no air that you can dump energy into. Your only choice is to radiate heat away, which is very inefficient.

agree you would radiate it away - but why does that need to be inefficient at scale (understood there are upfront costs)? meanwhile cooling is a huge expense in terrestrial DCs.

i am not an expert - happy to hear more expert opinions which is why i wrote the parent comment - but on a quick google search it seems folks are working on these designs: https://orbitsedge.com/satframe

Cooling in space is easy -- it just requires massive radiators. And mass is expensive in space.

Cooling is actually a big problem in space.

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