Thread

Google’s Project Suncatcher to put ML infrastructure in space

233 points · 553 comments · xnx

kin · 1790291957 · focus · HN ↗
For those questioning viability, there's a startup called Starcloud <a href="https://www.starcloud.com/">https://www.starcloud.com/ with a public whitepaper explaining a bit their hardware and economics <a href="https://www.starcloud.com/wp">https://www.starcloud.com/wp. They've already had one small proof of concept launched. Not trying to promote, I just heard about them on the ycomb podcast
1. stingrae · 1790292853 · focus · HN ↗
  “A 5 GW data center would require a solar array with dimensions of approximately 4 km by 4 km”
  I think dodging debris is challenging at that scale.
  Also this is the solar cells not the radiators
  1. flog · 1790298979 · focus · HN ↗
    I wonder if the shadows from such a large area would have a climate cooling effect?
    glenstein · 1790299515 · focus · HN ↗
    I think the principle is correct but probably it would need to be much bigger.
    johntb86 · 1790301352 · focus · HN ↗
    Ideally you'd put it in an orbit that wouldn't shadow earth, since if it goes in front of earth in part of the orbit then it'll go behind earth (and be in shadow) for part of the orbit. They mention they'd want it in a dawn-dusk sun-synchronous orbit, which would be in sunlight all the time and would never shadow the earth.
    vl · 1790304653 · focus · HN ↗
    How can this practically work though? As Earth goes around the Sun 90 degrees, orbit will become half-shadowed.
    sephamorr · 1790305440 · focus · HN ↗
    The earth isn't exactly round, you can use this to process your orbit exactly 360deg/year so you can always stay in the sun. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun-synchronous_orbit" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun-synchronous_orbit
    addaon · 1790307368 · focus · HN ↗
    s/process/precess/
    madamelic · 1790341075 · focus · HN ↗
    It's wild that I didn't even realize it didn't say precess until I saw your comment. Brains are weird.
    lend000 · 1790307104 · focus · HN ↗
    Would be cool if so, but I wonder what the plan is regarding radiation pressure pushing things out of orbit.
    busssard · 1790331485 · focus · HN ↗
    would radiation pressure not counterbalance the radiation pressure from the sun?
    given solar cells are only 30% efficient. if you put the radiators behind the panels then you have the structure already and always keep the radiators shaded
    me_again · 1790311968 · focus · HN ↗
    The Earth's surface area is ~ 510,000,000 km^2. For simplicity, say exactly half of it is receiving sunlight. If the satellite perfectly shadows 16 km^2, it would reduce incoming solar energy reaching Earth by 16/205,000,000 = 0.00000078%, I think.
    So not really. There are some proposals for space-based geoengineering, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1462901125002291" rel="nofollow">https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S146290112... has a summary. I can't say how plausible any of them are.
    [deleted] · 1790322521 · focus · HN ↗
    [deleted]

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