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Luke James is a freelance writer and journalist.\u00a0 Although his background is in legal, he has a personal interest in all things tech, especially hardware and microelectronics, and anything regulatory.\u00a0 ","collapsible":{"enabled":true,"maxHeight":250,"readMoreText":"Read more","readLessText":"Read less"}}), "https://slice.vanilla.futurecdn.net/13-4-24/js/authorBio.js"); } else { console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); } Luke James Social Links Navigation Contributor Luke James is a freelance writer and journalist. Although his background is in legal, he has a personal interest in all things tech, especially hardware and microelectronics, and anything regulatory.
cyrusfox I simply don't understand the reason for on satellite compute need. Seems prohibitively expensive with high risk of issues. Interference free and self sufficient being the only unique benefits I see. Cost of ownership is all upfront as it would be totally self sufficient for its usable life in Space right? Robustness here that can't be duplicated but at what cost? Reply
Notton By comparison, the International Space Station’s ETACS rejects roughly 70 kW of heat It's not ETACS, it's EATCS. EATCS: External Active Thermal Control System The article fails to explain the acronym too. Musk has previously waved off potential thermal critiques, telling SpaceNews back in March that it's "safe to say SpaceX knows how to do heat rejection in space" and pointing to the company's fleet of more than 10,000 Starlink satellites. I'm just going off of this comment, but Starlink satellites have anywhere from 1kW to 3kW of solar power… That's like… not even in the same range… As for the SpaceX IPO… AcjnLc4TH4M Reply
usertests cyrusfox said: I simply don't understand the reason for on satellite compute need. Seems prohibitively expensive with high risk of issues. Interference free and self sufficient being the only unique benefits I see. Cost of ownership is all upfront as it would be totally self sufficient for its usable life in Space right? Robustness here that can't be duplicated but at what cost? It could cut through some red tape associated with datacenters on the ground, and it does tap into abundant solar at greater efficiency than could be achieved on the ground. Beyond that, it's questionable whether it can overcome various high costs. Definitely not without Starship in working order. Depreciation is baked in since they would presumably need to be deorbited after a few years, with no hope of being fixed, upgraded, or preserved. Just a bunch of expensive accelerators burning to a crisp. Reply
Faiakes Isn't this primarily an energy generation issue? How many kw of electricity can space solar panels generate and at what surface area? Reply
usertests Faiakes said: Isn't this primarily an energy generation issue? How many kw of electricity can space solar panels generate and at what surface area? https://finance.yahoo.com/sectors/technology/article/spacex-reveals-its-first-orbital-data-center-much-simpler-than-a-starlink-satellite-musk-says-141110185.html SpaceX is claiming a 150 kW solar array, 250 W/m^2. I don't know the exact dimensions because the 70m x 20m measurements are counting taller radiators, and some area without panels in the middle. But it should be 600 m^2. Maybe in the ballpark of 25m x 12m for each half? There is greater solar intensity outside of the atmosphere, and it can be illuminated 99% of the time if they pick the right orbit. So you are generating more power than with the same area of panels on Earth. Reply
hotaru251 cyrusfox said: I simply don't understand the reason for on satellite compute need. Seems prohibitively expensive with high risk of issues. Interference free and self sufficient being the only unique benefits I see. Cost of ownership is all upfront as it would be totally self sufficient for its usable life in Space right? Robustness here that can't be duplicated but at what cost? near infinite expandability, no communities whining and protesting datacenters, unmatched solar power. Theres many reasons for it but its not viable at the moment and muskrat is just making stuff up like hos tesla gen 1 can Full Self Drive in a few months (which is stated for yrs and then eventually "impossible". its all to bump his companies value and make sure he gets his bonus from meeting specific goals. Reply
bit_user I read this as SpaceX just spinning the hype machine right before their IPO. They need to justify why anyone should pay the asking price of what's planned to be the largest IPO in history. Reply
Arkitekt78 Yes, cause we need more junk nobody uses floating around above us in space… 🤦♂️ Reply
Arkitekt78 hotaru251 said: near infinite expandability, no communities whining and protesting datacenters, unmatched solar power. Theres many reasons for it but its not viable at the moment and muskrat is just making stuff up like hos tesla gen 1 can Full Self Drive in a few months (which is stated for yrs and then eventually "impossible". its all to bump his companies value and make sure he gets his bonus from meeting specific goals. You're not wrong – I think… cant really tell because this is riddled with nonsensical speech and wannabe insults. Reply
Elrabin Forget the Space X portion entirely. Elon is crazy if he thinks he can go from zero to gigawatts of capacity at the Terafab overnight to build the server platforms going into these satellites. You're talking a company with zero fabrication knowledge trying to leapfrog industry leaders with decades of experience and hundreds of billions invested in just the last few years. It's not happening. The requirements for EUV lithography machines alone has Terafab dead in the water, the ASML devices are backordered for years. Reply
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- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/spacex-details-its-ai1-compute-satellite#main
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Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.