[notahacker]

This has been done on HN a few times. The heat dissipation argument is a solved problem with known physics, it's just that pointing out the inefficiency of radiative cooling is the correct response to the daft claim that "space is cold" (the solution is "launch lots of additional mass into space every 5 years" which isn't exactly cheap). Though that claim is still better than Elon trying to tell idiots that SpaceX's ODCs are "much simpler than a Starlink satellite"...

Good coverage of the relevant problems are here https://peraspera.us/realities-of-space-based-compute/

Perhaps an understated one is chip obsolence. With a terrestrial datacentre you replace chips when they're uneconomical due to how much faster alternatives are or when they reach end of life; with an orbital datacentre you replace them on fixed cycles depending on how much propellant you launched with.

But nobody doubts you can build them, it's just hard to imagine a scenario in which a terrestrial equivalent isn't cheaper, more flexible and more reliable. Actual good reasons for adding compute capacity in space are, ironically, the latency: for some edge cases like autonomous control systems that matters more than the attractive unit economics of sticking computers in a building.

Still, the economic case for ODCs [eventually] is more compelling than the case for the value of that revenue stream to SpaceX exceeding current US GDP in the not too distant future...

[Freedom2]

Elon has mentioned before that he intends to place AI-powered factories in space that will manufacture and install new chips, while recycling the older ones. He says it's going to be fully self-sufficient.

[mingus88]

Haha sure.

He also said that cybertrucks would be deployed to Mars, it would be amphibious and bulletproof, people buying Teslas would make money turning them into to self driving taxis, and charged people for FSD in 2016.

If you believe anything he says, maybe you should get in on this spaceX stock deal!

[notahacker]

That's the least practical solution of all (I say that as one of the few people in the world actually working on an orbital recycling project), especially if your technical advantage is launch, not inference chip manufacture. Apart from anything else, these giant satellites in LEO still need refuelling every five years, otherwise they'll just burn up in the atmosphere.

Replacing chips with newly launched chips on a refuelling cycle (and keeping all the heavy structural elements) is well within the boundaries of near term technology, but still involves enough mission and design-for-serviceability complexity to make it not obviously better than the 5 year recycle cadence Starlink and other modern constellations operate on.

Manufacturing newer, better chips in a microgravity environment using exactly the same material and plant technology as older chips is another thing entirely, particularly if you don't happen to own Nvidia et al's closely guarded trade secrets on how to make inference chips that are actually competitive and still aren't fully self sufficient even after the magical technology has been introduced because you need to top your massive satellites up with gas on a periodic basis....

[stasomatic]

Good one. Are they going to synthesize silica in orbit as well, from dark matter?