Does It Make Sense To Put Data Centers In Space? Can They Really Cost Less To Operate?

The great Scott Manley did a video about that: ▶ this video basically it doesn't make sense with current technologiesa and even with Starship's proposed specs/price it won't be profitable. Check it out...

Scott Manley had a video about this last year. ▶ this video The short of it is that cooling is likely the biggest problem, given you will need to pump the heat to the backside and radiate it away, and the amount of mass you will need to dedicate to cooling works against deployments and increases the cost per unit significantly. Not to mention, the idea of these huge deployments runs into potential space debris issues. Whenever one of these ventures actually manages to launch a proof of concept, I think we'll be able to quickly discern if there is actually a near-future here.

Scott Manley has published a video a few months ago explaining why putting data centers in space is an absolutely terrible idea. Lumen Orbit, the company mentioned, is a former name of Starcloud. ▶ this video

If you want to see exactly the type of solar panels needed for a data center (and why they’re impractical in even ideal situations) then check out this mockup of a proposed space data center ran off solar: ▶ this video