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this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2026
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The thing that makes data centers in space stupid is physics.
nevermind the expense of launching, maintaining, or upgrading server racks 500km above the ground. How the hell are you going to cool them?
I've seen scifi proposals about liquids in a cooling loop being exposed to the vacuum of space. But you still have to ask, why spend a billion dollars for a tech that can't compete with a 120mm fan back on Earth?
Because we can.
While this particular use case is stupid, with the exception of mildly conspiratorial Elysium-type assumptions, overcoming the problem of effective cooling in space is necessary for future space projects. This provides a testing platform for solving the problem.
I always wondered, why not have essentially heat batteries? You could use something like a heat pump to dump heat into a thermal mass for the short term. Maybe use those to power a Stirling generator in a central location? Be like stopping for gas, but also switching out your heat block? Or, maybe like a fuel pre-heater? Heck, you could even have just a high heat capacity material that you dump heat into and then vent superheated matter for fine control thrusters?
This post illustrates a serious lack of knowledge and understanding of how heat transfer and thermodynamic systems work outside of a sci-fi setting.
Heat can be stored, ya know. Doesn't all have to be radiated at once.