Elon Musk on Data Centers in Orbit: "spacex Will Be Doing This"
Posted2 months agoActive2 months ago
arstechnica.comTechstory
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SpacexData CentersSatellite Technology
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Spacex
Data Centers
Satellite Technology
Elon Musk announces SpaceX's plans to build data centers in orbit, sparking interest and some practical concerns among HN users.
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Oct 31, 2025 at 2:55 PM EDT
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Intel chips are rated for a maximum temperature of 100 centigrade, I get 1100 W/m. Contrast that to the solar constant of about 1400 W/m. If you assume solar panels are about 20% efficient, you are going to get 280 W of power from a meter of solar panel which all turns into heat so we need 1/4 meter of cooling panel for a meter of solar panels.
The question though isn't the area but rather the weight and the cost, the solar panels could be very lightweight films printed onto membranes whereas the cooling panels will need circulating fluids, but heat pipes are pretty high density.