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this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2026
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Heat can be stored, ya know. Doesn't all have to be radiated at once.
Yes, it can. You still have to get rid of it eventually though, and do it faster than it's being generated. That's the problem in space. Look at the cooling required here in Earth, with an atmosphere and ready access to water. Now try doing that in space with none of that, using current or even near-future tech.
As an example, you talk about ejecting mass to get rid of heat. The most practical material to use would actually be water. A small 10MW data center would need about 250 TONS of water per day to absorbe that much heat (iron would need over 1000 tons). It would cost over 38 million dollars per day to replace that water and nearly 150 million for the iron. And that's just for one small data center.
Theoretically it would actually be hydrogen, with helium as a distant second, which are relatively abundant in space. That opens up questions of hydrogen embrittlement, which are a major stumbling block of hydrogen fuels on earth as well (that and most hydrogen fuels are made from cracking fossil fuels). Or harvesting hydrogen/helium reliably in space. Both problems that would have to be solved for long term space travel, using nuclear fusion. Not to mention solving the original overheating issue, which would also need to be solved for a spaceship larger than a lunar lander.
Of course, given a closed loop radiator based system, radiation efficiency depends on temperature, so molten salts may well be the way to go if you're not using pure elements. Water doesn't like being water all that much when it is maintained under pressures and temperatures that start with thousands of atmospheres and degrees.
So, to reiterate my original post with all of the downvotes, given current technology it's stupid. But then again, given current technology going to space itself it stupid and never worth the price tag. Spend enough doing stupid things and you figure out ways to make them less stupid.