Thread

1. cratermoon · 1790368515 · focus · HN ↗

   It's not even a test of an orbital data center. All it will do it determine if and how a Google TPU performs in space.

   1. qayxc · 1790371583 · focus · HN ↗

      That's nit-picking. It's one of the first steps towards this goal. Why would any sane engineer put a complete orbital data centre prototype into space without having any data on how most crucial piece of equipment would perform in the target environment?

      First they figure out whether they could get away with using unmodified "off-the-shelf" hardware they already have and how to cool it.

      By the time they have a working design, it'll already be a small group of such satellites basically being a fully operational orbital data centre, albeit a rather small one. So yeah, I think there's a point to calling this a test for an "orbital data centre", just like Apollo 1-A was a test for a manned Moon mission despite being suborbital and uncrewed.

      1. rsynnott · 1790417888 · focus · HN ↗

         > First they figure out whether they could get away with using unmodified "off-the-shelf" hardware they already have and how to cool it.

         They're, ahead, not doing that, though. Per the article, they explicitly will not attempt to provide adequate cooling.

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