[brianbreslin]

forgive my ignorance on this q. I always assumed based on movies that the temperatures in space were very cold (like near absolute zero). So wouldn't putting a hot data center in space just dissipate heat? Do shuttles and space stations not radiate heat?

[hydrolox]

there is no air or medium for conductive transfer, it's purely radiative. The shuttle used it's very large doors as radiators, as far as I know. The point is that you need a lot more surface area , and that it needs to be unobstructed (since it's literally radiating out, no convention to transfer in cool air/water/medium)