The Case for Space Datacenters

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10 points·davedx··7 comments

The best thinking I've read on this topic is here:

https://splittinginfinity.substack.com/i/183266265/space-dat...

(The entire post is well worth your time too.)

The article makes a lot of points about cost viability, but says nothing about what happens at the end of life for space datacenters.

On Earth, the materials and equipment in the datacenter can be repurposed, recycled, or properly disposed of. In space, EOL'ed stuff either stays in orbit, burns in the atmosphere on reentry, or moved out of useful orbits.

I'm not sure I'm thrilled at the idea of more space junk in orbit or more aerosolized metals in the stratosphere.

The most interesting argument I've heard is that in space there are no NIMBYs to protest or local (or state) politicians to extract donations. Yes, there aren't many slots for geostationary orbits, but in most other cases there's plenty of room.

Fracking in space is the next big thing because there’re no government regulations in space (yet) /s

Commons gonna tragedy, alas.

Even if you limit yourself to the 48 states, it's hard to believe there's 0 counties happy to take you. Just about anywhere terrestrial is cheaper to transport to than riding a giant bottle of explosives at $1500/kg. Politicians are generally pretty cheap actually, and so far they've been willing to make some pretty generous tax concessions to attract data centers.

You're right that some parts of life on earth are cheaper. There are plenty of counties, but are they near the net backbone? Do they have power to spare?

And remember that the semi trucks still have bottles of explosives that may not be as big as a rocket, but are still far from safe.

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