503K views · Sep 9, 2024 · 16:37 · 3 HN recommenders · 4 mentions · discussed 2024–2025
Scott Manley analyzes the idea of putting data centers in orbit, prompted by Lumen Orbit's funding. He examines the claimed advantage of constant solar power against launch cost, cooling and mass.
Why Hacker News points people here: Recommended in orbital data center threads as a sober explanation of why the idea doesn't work out economically or thermally.
“The great Scott Manley did a video about that”HN comment, 2025
“Scott Manley has published a video a few months ago explaining why putting data centers in space is an absolutely terrible idea.”
Explains why orbital data centers are a bad idea
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
“The great Scott Manley did a video about that”
Argues orbital data centers don't make sense even with Starship
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...
“cooling is likely the biggest problem”
Cooling and mass are the biggest problems for orbital data centers
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.
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
