Comment Re:Not all orbits (Score 1) 228
Data centres are (comparatively) point sources of heat; they can't be "spread out" or laid out flat in 2d.
Yes you can if latency isn't an issue which it isn't if you are crunching data to train models.
Also,Sstarlink antennas are their own radiators. They get very hot and correspondingly radiate quickly (waste heat from the thrusters is also quite high temp).
As I understood it, they are basing the satellites on the coming Starlink Gen 3 and they are adding a large radiator sticking out on the back of it for added cooling and thermal management is a solved problem. Your reasoning here seems to be based on the idea that the satellites are running full tilt the whole time which isn't necessary how they will be operated.
This is an economics question, datacentres on Earth vs. datacentres in space.
Yes, which I actually talked about in my closing paragraph.
And you can't talk about the power advantages without also talking about the disadvantages like thermal management.
It's not about the power advantage, it's about the cost of the power which is 0 in space (disregarding initial fixed cost). The gen 3 satellites PV's are supposed to generate ~25 kW which needs a total radiator area of ~40 sqm if the temperature being radiated is in the ~80C range (assuming a low emissivity of 0.8, a 10% efficiency loss in the cooling system and that I calculated P=sigma*epsilon*A×T^4 right).
Regardless of the technical details and feasibility, we can both agree on that it comes down to economics in the end. Musk certainly have money to burn which may be the deciding factor for this to actually work in the end.