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Google’s Project Suncatcher to put ML infrastructure in space

233 points · 553 comments · xnx

  1. zactato · · focus · HN ↗
    How are they solving the heat dissipation issues?
    1. GMoromisato · · focus · HN ↗
      Please stop with this argument. This is one of the easiest problems to solve. Heat dissipation requires a radiator, which is just a dumb hunk of metal. All you need is a cheap way to launch mass to orbit, which is exactly what SpaceX (and Chinese companies) are doing.

      The only valid argument against data centers in space is the economic cost. If the per megatoken price for space datacenters is higher than terrestrial, then this won't work.

      But the price for terrestrial datacenters keeps going up and technology keeps dropping the price of space-based.

      1. mzajc · · focus · HN ↗
        > This is one of the easiest problems to solve. /../ All you need is a cheap way to launch mass to orbit.

        So... not easy? I don't suppose we're at a point where you could reasonably send a large-enough radiator for a multi-gigawatt cluster into space?

        1. m4rtink · · focus · HN ↗
          Not only that - it would be totally insane to launch something heavy & at the same time fragile from earth (under a lot of vibrations & heavy g-loading).

          This is all a weird speedrun or race. If something we should be working on setting up resource mining from the Moon & asteroids, materials processing on the Lunar surface & in orbit, simple manufacturing in space, etc.

          Instead some people think we can jump straight to a computronium Dyson swarm. :P

          1. GMoromisato · · focus · HN ↗
            The plan is to launch thousands of 250 kW satellite. Doesn't sound insane at all.
        2. GMoromisato · · focus · HN ↗
          Now you've moved the goal posts. It's no longer "you can't cool stuff in space"; now it's "we can't launch a 10-gW compute cluster by the end of the year."

          You don't need to send a multi-gigawatt satellite to space. You just need to launch a few thousand 250 kW satellites. That's not against the laws of physics.

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