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?
    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.

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