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Google's first Suncatcher orbital data center test launches October 1

52 points · 96 comments · sbulaev

  1. spandrew · · focus · HN ↗
    There were a lot of YouTube science-fluencers talking about how dumb this idea was. Google themselves called it a Moonshot (har har).

    Curious to see if the experiment changes our understanding of space radiators at a certain scale for non-space exploration purposes.

    1. tpetry · · focus · HN ↗
      Its running for 15 minutes and then must shut down for a long time to cool down. Thats exactly why those "science-fluencers" said its a dumb idea. This is far away from proving that its a viable idea.
      1. moralestapia · · focus · HN ↗
        Source for that?

        Edit: @kieranmaine thanks! Wonder how long they have to wait to turn them on again.

        1. kieranmaine · · focus · HN ↗
          FTA:

          > The cooling system will only be able to operate in brief spurts of about 15 minutes. After that, the TPUs need to shut down to allow the radiators to catch up.

      2. red75prime · · focus · HN ↗
        They use passive cooling in their MVP satellite (for the sake of simplicity, probably). This, naturally, severely limits the heat rejection capacity.
        1. kadoban · · focus · HN ↗
          They use passive cooling _because it's in a goddamn vacuum_. Passive cooling is basically your only option.
          1. red75prime · · focus · HN ↗
            _Radiative cooling_ is the only option because it's in vacuum. But you can transfer heat to the radiator either passively (using thermal conductivity), or actively (using coolant). The second option allows to effectively use larger radiators.

            BTW, we seem to have Noisesphere instead of Noosphere.

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