https://taranis.ie/datacenters-in-space-are-a-terrible-horrible-no-good-idea/

[davidgerard@circumstances.run]

https://taranis.ie/datacenters-in-space-are-a-terrible-horrible-no-good-idea/

this is an essay on this fucking stupid idea, just hitting the technical issues

it's time to cover this one. what are *your* favourite writeups on why data centres in space are just fucking stupid?

[kalviter@hol.ogra.ph]

@davidgerard@circumstances.run ah yes, the space industries foundational issue of not being computers.

Capitalist approaches to space need it to be a resource that can be "captured" and "owned". Your margin comes from being the person who owns and utilises a parcel of it - this is the same line of reasoning that gives you space drug manufacturers. But the hard constraints on the use of outer space are mostly things like cost (capex becomes opex when satellites have a finite lifetime and can't be repaired/upgraded/improved easily) and collision risks, which are their own nightmarish economic box of tricks.

We have invented ways for people to need more and more computer every year. Space data centers are an attempt to bring that spiralling model to the space industry, without the understanding of why people need more and more computer every year and how those additional chips end up being absorbed into our lives. Fixed-capacity 10 year datacenters that take an additional 5-10 years either side for build-out, launch, disposal, and downtime can't fit into the terrestrial datacenter economic model.

source: I am a former economic/data analyst in the space industry who went back to just making the spacecraft.