Ogre09 said:

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I would think an ocean would be an easier environment than space. The ocean is a great heat sink, it's way easier to get however much mass you want floating around out there. Would have to make them storm proof though.

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Saw something the other day that someone is already looking at this and use of wave energy as the energy source, or at least part of the energy requirement.

Panthalassa unveils wave-powered floating data center platform - DCD

Sounds great until it washes up on shore in the PRC or they capture it with a sub or ship.

TexAgs91 said:

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Logos Stick said:

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TexAgs91 said:

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I think Elon and SpaceX realize this. If they're planning on going ahead with it, it means they've figured it out. Probably using radiators.

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Yes.

Did some looking... for a data center you are talking hundreds of thousands of square meters of radiator area.

Between the solar panels to power it and the radiators to cool it.... seems like a dream.

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Yes, it will be a bit large
Here's one next to a 408 ft tall starship

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And even that understates the scope/scale of what folks are considering buying into. Elon's talking about a million satellites launched into orbit via a mass driver on the moon's surface, after shipping just the chips basically there to be fabricated, to add a thousand terrawatts a year.

JUST IN: SpaceX intends to build a lunar mass driver on the Moon's surface, per its S-1 filing.

The system will use electromagnetic acceleration to launch payloads into space without rockets, taking advantage of the Moon's low gravity. https://t.co/mevdBLCDBm pic.twitter.com/4hgIcW4XLs

— Muskonomy (@muskonomy) May 20, 2026

LeonardSkinner said:

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Khan couldn't even handle three dimensional maneuvering in space, so I think we can safely disregard any other professed "knowledge" of the subject.

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Half of your username fits.

pfo said:

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Esteban du Plantier said:

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The problem with space is cooling stuff.

Huge data center creates a lot of heat, would be a huge challenge to keep that cool.

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Space is -455 degrees Fahrenheit. A huge advantage to data centers in space is the Mother Nature handles the cooling.

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Sounds like space has a global warming problem that grifters need to exploit.........

I don't know, man…I just think space is super gay.

Ogre09 said:

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I would think an ocean would be an easier environment than space. The ocean is a great heat sink, it's way easier to get however much mass you want floating around out there. Would have to make them storm proof though.

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Submerge the data center several (10s of) meters below the surface. Anchor it to the sea floor. The colder the water the better.

Some Junkie Cosmonaut said:

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I don't know, man…I just think space is super gay.

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Username does not check out.

An L of an Ag said:

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Some Junkie Cosmonaut said:

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I don't know, man…I just think space is super gay.

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Username does not check out.

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We'll mark you down as not a P1

tk for tu juan said:

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An L of an Ag said:

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Some Junkie Cosmonaut said:

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I don't know, man…I just think space is super gay.

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Username does not check out.

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We'll mark you down as not a P1

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Is that good or bad?

TXAG 05 said:

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tk for tu juan said:

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An L of an Ag said:

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Some Junkie Cosmonaut said:

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I don't know, man…I just think space is super gay.

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Username does not check out.

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We'll mark you down as not a P1

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Is that good or bad?

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Probably good in the long run, because then you do not have quotes/drops from 1310 The Ticket playing in your head

doubledog said:

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pfo said:

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Esteban du Plantier said:

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The problem with space is cooling stuff.

Huge data center creates a lot of heat, would be a huge challenge to keep that cool.

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Space is -455 degrees Fahrenheit. A huge advantage to data centers in space is the Mother Nature handles the cooling.

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Think of a Vacuum bottle. Hot stays hot, cold stays cold (no gases or liquids to disperse the heat). As stated, radiant cooling is the solution, however the radiator will be as big as the solar panels.

Radiant cooling involves the radiation of infrared "light" directly into space (same principle as visible light). This will "cool" the radiators without the need for air circulation. (see balance of energy arguments). Normally hot water is pumped through the radiator. The radiator then emits infrared radiation, to balance the energy (return to cold). The challenge is to deploy efficient heat exchangers in outer space.

FYI near earth space is closer to 4K. At these extreme temperatures the Kelvin scale is the most accurate measurement.

https://iee.psu.edu/news/blog/using-outer-space-cooling-and-energy-earth

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i would image the radiator and solar panels are one in the same. The panel on the side facing the sun and the radiator opposite facing away.

Quote:

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i would image the radiator and solar panels are one in the same. The panel on the side facing the sun and the radiator opposite facing away.

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Agree. But since we're talking about radiators then wouldn't the surface area of the radiator have to be much greater than the solar panels?

And how are the electronics going to be shielded from the higher frequency radiation spectrum? Cosmic ray hits the right bit at the right time and you could have some real problems to deal with. You can't shield with mass because the fuel costs of getting said mass into space would be prohibitive. In fact, I'm not convinced that the fuel costs of getting the data center itself up there could ever be made up with solar power.

Astro****e, duh

Neural nets with trillions of parameters are highly resilient to bit flips, as they already contain a lot of noise.

Deterministic parts of the code, such as the operating system, are already addressed by various methods like triple-voting redundancy.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 31, 2026

Radiative cooling rising as T^4 really favors higher operating temperatures.

Ultimately, solar-powered AI satellites are the only way to achieve a Kardashev-II civilization.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 24, 2025

Confirmed SpaceX is planning active cooling (ie pumped fluid loops) for their AI satellites. When you consider the power density of today's bleeding edge processors, and the distance the heat needs to be moved, liquid cooling is the obvious choice.

Starcloud-2 will be… pic.twitter.com/pkVOVfzyTx

— Ezra Feilden (@ezrafeilden) May 21, 2026

150kW is fine too

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 10, 2025

If you want to get nerdy:

Debunking the Cooling Constraint for Space Data Centers ❄️🛰️

We tackled one of the most persistent objections to orbital compute: “How do you cool data centers in space?”

Using first-principles and Starlink V3 scaling (20kW > 100kW) as a reference, we show the cooling problem… pic.twitter.com/wSSAF6RA46

— Vlad Saigau (@VladSaigau) December 17, 2025

TLDR: Increase operating temperature of the compute system by 20C to reduce the area necessary for radiation. Radiation is ~7% of total footprint as compared to solar array at ~90%. Mass and cost of the radiator become the consideration.