Conversation

Notices

1. Aether (aether@poa.st)'s status on Sunday, 30-Jun-2024 21:59:23 JST Aether
   Europe wants to deploy datacenters into space. Studies say it's feasible.
   
   cnbc.com/2024/06/27/europe-wants-to-deploy-data-centers-into-space-study-says.html
   
   >ASCEND's space-based data storage facilities would benefit from "infinite energy" captured from the sun and orbit at an altitude of around 1,400 kilometers (869.9 miles).
   
   Well congratulations, your datacenter is now permanently running away from you at sixteen thousand miles per hour.
   
   Fortunately the writer of this piece spoke to some people who aren't certifiably insane:
   
   >Winterson estimates that even a small 1 megawatt center in low earth orbit would need around 280,000 kilograms of rocket fuel per year at a cost of around $140 million in 2030 - a calculation based on a significant decrease in launch costs, which has yet to take place.
   
   That's not the launch cost, that's the upkeep.
   
   And that's for a tiny datacenter. The AI center Tesla is building right now is targeting not 1 megawatt but 500MW, which would cost $70 billion per year to maintain given these assumptions.
   
   Back on Earth, Tesla is spending around $4 billion on the entire datacenter.
   • Marakus (marakus@poa.st)'s status on Sunday, 30-Jun-2024 21:59:23 JST Marakus

     in reply to
     @Aether People will try anything before building another nuclear powerplant.
     xianc78 likes this.