Data Centers in Space: The Wrong Chip in the Right Place
Data centers in space are hard — not just because of weight or cost, but because of this equation: P = εσT⁴A. That’s how much heat a surface radiates into the void. Temperature to the fourth power. Double the temperature, sixteen times the radiation. This whole post is basically explaining how thoroughly that T⁴ drives the entire discussion. In space, with no atmosphere, radiation is your only cooling option. Yes, there’s weight and launch cost, but thermal rejection is the constraint most people disregard — and the one I believe points in a different direction than current efforts. Managing heat is not new at all in space, managing this amount of heat is. I’ve spent time on both sides: I worked on space hardware as a postdoc, and I co-founded an AI company that operates billions of inference runs. I’ve been asked to run due diligence on this three times now, and this is the gist, openly. TL;DR: yes, there’s a high-risk, high-reward, capital-intensive play here. Great for VCs, more so if they hint you at running hot chips. ...