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How about an array of orbiting servers?

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Radiant heat loss (Score: 5, Insightful)

by fishybell@pipedot.org on 2014-03-12 20:38 (#H4)

Except that in space you only have heat loss due to radiation rather than conduction, which is quite a bit more efficient.
Add to that the cost of upgrading obsolete servers, and I don't (forgive the pun) see this taking off anytime soon.

Re: Radiant heat loss (Score: 1)

by billshooterofbul@pipedot.org on 2014-03-12 21:10 (#H6)

Its been a while since my thermodynamics class in college, does the radiation given off depend upon the difference in temps? I mean, at some point a greater temperature differential would offset the loss of conduction, right?

My intuition would expect that an object at 60 C in a room with air at 59 C would cool slower than an object at 60 C in the vacuum of space.

Re: Radiant heat loss (Score: 2, Insightful)

by danieldvorkin@pipedot.org on 2014-03-12 21:39 (#H7)

My intuition would expect that an object at 60 C in a room with air at 59 C would cool slower than an object at 60 C in the vacuum of space.


If your server room's at 60 C, you need to invest in better air conditioning.

Quite seriously, convective cooling is so much more efficient than radiative cooling that for any realistic setup, servers on the ground are going to be much easier to cool than those in space.

Moderation

Time Reason Points Voter
2014-03-13 07:27 Insightful +1 hyper@pipedot.org
2014-03-13 07:40 Normal 0 nadaou@pipedot.org

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