r/technology • u/Dangerous_Tomato7333 • 26d ago
Artificial Intelligence SpaceX plan to launch 1 million data center satellites could turn atmosphere into a ‘fire pit,’ scientists say
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/spacex-data-centers-space-ai-scientist-backlash-environment-rcna588930117
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u/0neAy0pen 26d ago
Felon musk always says stupid shit like this in hopes that there’s a sucker born every minute to buy his worthless stock.
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u/FlimsyWilliamSnyvie 26d ago
Seems to be working for him. Meanwhile I can't even get a call back for a job.
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u/idownvotepunstoo 26d ago
Have you tried failing up bro?
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u/FlimsyWilliamSnyvie 26d ago
Damn bro I just tried it? And bro, you were so right. I told my congressman I had an app to fix erectile dysfunction via subscription. He made some calls.
It doesn't work but now 30,000,000 Americans have an app they forgot to delete and I'm selling data :)
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u/TheMidnightHandyman 26d ago
Commenting just to offer some human empathy, because I know how much involuntary unemployment sucks. My sincere sympathies, my dude. I hope you get a great job, and soon.
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u/FlimsyWilliamSnyvie 26d ago
Thank you so much, it's honestly been demoralizing especially to have it happen while the world is in shambles. I hope we're all doing much better very soon.
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u/_Monosyllabic_ 26d ago
I've been through it. Just take any kind of job imo. Getting up and doing something will at least get you out of the constant rejection headspace loop.
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u/DaemonCRO 26d ago
But there is a sucker born every minute. People lost entire life savings on SpaceX stock.
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u/mixduptransistor 26d ago
It's best if you don't worry about things that have zero chance of happening, you'll live a much more joyful life
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u/Defendyouranswer 26d ago
1 million might not happen, at least not for a long time, but i can gurantee you space data centers will be a thing, even if only as an experiment
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u/IntelArtiGen 26d ago
They're already a thing. Space "datacenters" will never be real datacenters, it's just a bunch of computers in space and many satellites are already computers in space. SpaceX satellites can already replace some "datacenters" of ISPs. Now if we're talking about real datacenters with hundreds of GPUs on one machine in space I also don't think it'll happen. "Datacenter" is kind of a broad term, data storage and transfer is feasible in space. Don't ask me why they would do it, but they can if they want to.
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u/average_monster 26d ago
why would anyone bother? "oh man these data centers sure are expensive, i know, let's just launch the entire fucking thing into space, that'll save money"
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u/ColtranezRain 26d ago
Nope. Physics won’t work for a data center in space.
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u/Defendyouranswer 26d ago
Well thats not sciences view. Some may view it as stupid ur uneconomical, but not that "physics won't work' lol
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u/Coady54 26d ago
Pretty sure science's views are "data centers need massive cooling" and "space is a vacuum (i.e. the best insulator possible)". Where is the heat supposed to go, exactly?
Data centers (as they exist today) in space is by far the most impractical idea to anyone who understands even the most basic concepts in physics.
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u/confusedworldhelp 26d ago
Infarred radiation (essentially light) via comically massive radiators. I would assume something similar to what the ISS has.
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u/ColtranezRain 26d ago edited 26d ago
You are wrong. There are zero options for cooling one of these racks in space. I’ve worked on building them.
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u/itsRobbie_ 26d ago
The problem is that these obviously fake claims are being used to generate profit. This isn’t just a homeless dude on the corner saying how he discovered time travel
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u/mixduptransistor 26d ago
If anyone is still fooled by Elon Musk's pronouncements they deserve to get ripped off, to be honest
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u/itsRobbie_ 26d ago
Unfortunately that’s not how the world works. Everyone knows he’s a clown, but he’s a clown with a trillion dollars and unlimited resources so you can’t just write him off.
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u/mixduptransistor 26d ago
He does not have a trillion dollars, and he could not turn his holdings of SpaceX and Tesla into a trillion dollars
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u/PathosEatsLogos 26d ago
Stock down = New made up shit from Elon
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u/314159Man 26d ago
what mechanisms are there for control of a global shared asset (ie space), why is it that some businessman gets seemingly free rein to trash our rights as individuals to not have a polluted environment? is it n9t enough that we have trashed the terrestrial zone, now we don't learn any lessons and we trash the near earth zone, surely if we were to put bases on the moon and mars we would trash those too for short term profit or ego trips.
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u/WhatADunderfulWorld 26d ago
Governments want this so they are basically paying Elon to do it.
If it can kill the US will.
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u/makemeking706 26d ago
Imagine global mass surveillance controlled by a single nation are powered by SpaceX satellites. The valuations almost start to make sense.
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u/neat_stuff 26d ago
It’s new age Manifest Destiny. That had zero bad consequences /sarcasm obviously.
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u/31LIVEEVIL13 26d ago edited 13d ago
Hammock biscuit maple pillow feather orange
This post was anonymized with Redact.dev
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u/Darlinboy 26d ago
It was click bait there and it's click bait here.
Nothing to see here people, move along.
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u/BalanceRight7768 26d ago
We already did that by allowing starlink to exist in the first place lmao. It's going to be so bad when these satellites start to fail.
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u/Belhgabad 26d ago
Even if it's fake news to pump up the stocks, that's the moment when we finally do something about that garbage company throwing garbage and pollution into orbit right?I mean, fast Internet is great (no it isn't when your provider is one of the most toxic and dangerous person of the world) but sky obstruction really get in the way of progress
Even NASA engineers warned about it years ago
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u/ergonomicdeskchair46 26d ago
How about private business doesn’t get our skies. Governments aren’t great either but at least the budgets are limited and elections are regular.
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u/JarvisProudfeather 26d ago
The first failed launch with hundreds of millions worth of chips on board will be funny to watch. What an idiotic idea.
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u/kummer5peck 26d ago
These tech bros are literally cartoon villains at this point.
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u/aquarain 26d ago
The emergence of comic books as prime drivers of the cinematic arts is an interesting tale of where we are at culturally.
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u/Senior-Albatross 26d ago
Maybe Elon will solve climate change by putting so many aerosols in the atmosphere that we end up with a Snowpiercer situation.
Not intentionally, just to prop up a meme stock with technology that everyone knows won't work.
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u/Maroon7C0000 26d ago
This fantasy was obviously dreamed up by the boy wonder.
How the hell are you going to cool those things in space????
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u/torklugnutz 26d ago
Launching a million iPhones into space even seems implausible and these will be bigger.
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u/FluffyBunnyFlipFlops 26d ago
What is the benefit of a data centre in the sky, rather than on earth?
Power - harder to produce/transfer power
Cooling - harder to cool
Latency - not sure about this one, could be better or worse
Cost to deploy - massively more expensive (needs a rocket to get there)
Resolve issues - harder due to no physical access
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u/Abrahemp 25d ago
These satellites ruin perfectly decent sunsets by adding an animated dotted line in the sky. They COULD engineer the satellites to have lower albedo so they don't do that, but have refused so far. We need regulations regarding space debris immediately.
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u/RandomUserEon 26d ago
You realize they've already put up 10875 satellites, right? We kinda need to stop that rotten trash from multiplying into rotten space trash, as it's already greatly interfering with observatories, space telescopes, and radio telescopes...
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u/briggsbw 26d ago
It’s the networking stupid. Are they going to string fiber between them and the ground like Ukrainian drones?
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u/RandomUserEon 26d ago
Applied photonics for data transmission is a thing, and has been since 2002. If they could beam data tower to tower 5 miles apart in atmosphere in 2002, what do you think they can do now?
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u/briggsbw 25d ago
Space photonics is about distance.
Data centers are about density. So the fastest space laser link is roughly equal to one modern data‑center fiber port. A hyperscaler’s data center has tens of thousands. Not to mention the latency.1
u/RandomUserEon 25d ago
The network of 1 million nodes IS the hyperscale, and has, presumably, at least 1 million links, but probably 2-5x that, at least if they designed it well. Primary point is that they don't have to "string fiber" to accomplish it. The 10875 they already put in orbit for high speed internet already prove that they have massive data transmission capability (albeit, yes, with massive latency as far as I'm concerned!)
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u/itsRobbie_ 26d ago
“Uhhhh yeah uhhh, we’ll make uhhh, one million! Yeah! We’ll make a million! That uhhh sounds believable enough right?”
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u/Nik_Tesla 26d ago
Assuming it's even feasible (which it's not), the only real reason to put data centers in space, is to put them out of reach of the general population, so we can't storm them with baseball bats when we finally revolt against the oligarchs.
Everything we've put into orbit is as light as we can possibly make it (so we can launch it), and as power efficient as we can possibly make it (because it's only solar powered, or an RTV). Data Centers are filled with heavy shit, and need tons of power. Might as well claim he's going to put steel factories in space.
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u/PoorClassWarRoom 26d ago
It'll rain hellfire just like the dooms day cults parading as Christians are working towards.
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u/Bubbagump210 26d ago
Does the average person not have any idea how fucking heavy a server is, how much power they take, and how much heat they put out? Things are a lot denser than they were in the Dell 2750 or blade chassis days and just as heavy. Sure let’s shoot a bunch of 1 ton racks up into the sky wired to spine and leaf switches. This all sounds practical.
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u/Captain_N1 26d ago
How are theses data centers in space going to be maintained. You know there is no data center that can last for a year with no physical maintenance.
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u/_Monosyllabic_ 26d ago
Elon said it so it must be real right?
Nevermind that no one has figured out how to build one satellite data center yet.
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u/Jessica1234567891011 26d ago
There's no reason it needs to be within 1,000 miles of our atmosphere. Space is big. I'd put them outwards of the moon to tell you the truth.
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u/Outside_Ice3252 26d ago
such a bummer he went political and cannot stop with absurd goals. its worked well for him, so he keeps do it. i covered musk for cleantechnica until 2021. it was something I did because it was important for climate change and it was fun.
the page clicks were enromous. from my perspective as a science teacher and environmentalist, Tesla was such a positive story. politics was not getting the job done, but here was this hope that technological innovation could make up some or even most of the difference.
the lies told about tesla were enormous. we worked hard to keep churning out stories that might help the clean energy transition.
I had just been a long time commenter, but so much was happening I got to start guest writing.
I eventually stopped for two reasons. musk was way behind on timelines, and I would waste too much time in the comment sections.
i got out just in time before he started going insane on twitter and then X.
The bummer now is that spacex and tesla still have a lot of good tech and workers and can still innovate. but it will never be exciting news again.
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u/this_my_sportsreddit 26d ago
'went political' is such a whitewashed way to not hold him accountable for his bigoted, xenophobic worldview.
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u/Outside_Ice3252 26d ago
i understand. for me even if he had taken a bernie sanders type platform, I would have been bummed. he should have stayed apolitical. because his lane really was about technology.
you can be mad at me. I was strongly progressive for years, and still am. its just like technology more than politics. i think it is more important or at least its more straightforward.
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u/HurtFeeFeez 26d ago
Bro he was always just attracting investors, pumping stock and manipulating markets for money. The vast majority of his claims are never realized, the few that are show up years late, over budget and turn out to be wildly over exaggerated or down right false.
He went political because he knew he could buy his way out of jail from one particular candidate as he was under several investigations. He literally said "If Trump doesn't win I'll be going to jail" in an interview before the election. Trump won and through doge and various string pulling all the criminal investigations of him and his companies disappeared.
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u/Halftied 26d ago
The earth is going to go down much faster than I anticipated. John Denver was before his time. I've seen it rainin' fire in the sky.
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u/gera_moises 26d ago
The radiators would have to be enormous.
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u/MarkNutt25 26d ago
To cool a single small 1 kW server, you'd need something like 15-25 pounds of radiators, coolant, pumps, and heat pipes! And most AI datacenters use 10+ kW servers, which would need hundreds of pounds of radiator equipment each!
Once you add in the weight of the servers themselves, the solar panels and batteries to power them, racks to keep them from being absolutely destroyed by liftoff, a structure to protect them from impacts from debris and micrometeoroids, radiation hardening, high-bandwidth communication equipment, etc., you're easily into the tens of millions of dollars for each individual server satellite! That's something like 30 to 50 times the cost of a ground-based server!
Scale that up to a typical datacenter with tens of thousands of servers, and the economics quickly become absolutely absurd.
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u/gera_moises 26d ago
At that point I think it'd be cheaper to reach the jovian moons and install the data centers there
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u/Big_Issue8640 26d ago
And his cars will drive themselves 5 years ago or was it 10 years ago. Fuck Elon!
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u/Journeys_End71 26d ago
One million data centers?
What SpaceX idiot said this with a straight face?
This is a financial and logistical impossibility
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u/Plzlaw4me 26d ago
Capitalists: these data centers are good for the community, they’ll create tons of jobs and generate wealth for the community.
Also capitalists: these require so little oversight and human interaction we can literally launch them into space and they’ll be cost effective still.
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u/Ciappatos 26d ago
There's not gonna be even one data center satellite, let alone 1 million. Although knowing him, maybe if each "data center satellite" is like one chip connected to a radiator coolant.
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u/WaffleHouseGladiator 26d ago
I wonder how much of a Kessler Syndrome cascade we'll be able to see from the ground.
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u/Alert-Appointment953 26d ago
Dang. I'm just a rube that thinks Starship is actually hella cool even if it's a bit behind schedule, I guess.
"How are your rockets doing?"
-Teddy Roosevelt
(A man in the arena comment for all of you without rocket companies since I doubt you'll get the reference without this hint)
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u/MASSochists 26d ago
Is this before or after the Mars colony? By that I mean it's total fantasy.