Orbital Data Centers
looorg writes:
(1) https://www.cnbc.com/2024/06/27/europe-wants-to-deploy-data-centers-into-space-study-says.html
(2) https://natick.research.microsoft.com/
New data center location -- Space. In about a decade or two they want to have data centers in space. It's somewhat unclear what the competitive edge would be to launch your data center into space. Wouldn't it make more sense to submerge them into the ocean? Which they have already tried and done to (2).
The total global electricity consumption from data centers could reach more than 1,000 terawatt-hours in 2026 - that's roughly equivalent to the electricity consumption of Japan, according to the International Energy Agency.
ASCEND's space-based data storage facilities would benefit from "infinite energy" captured from the sun and orbit at an altitude of around 1,400 kilometers (869.9 miles).
[...] The facilities that the study explored launching into space would orbit at an altitude of around 1,400 kilometers (869.9 miles) - about three times the altitude of the International Space Station. Dumestier explained that ASCEND would aim to deploy 13 space data center building blocks with a total capacity of 10 megawatts in 2036, in order to achieve the starting point for cloud service commercialization.
Each building block - with a surface area of 6,300 square meters - includes capacity for its own data center service and is launched within one space vehicle, he said.
In order to have a significant impact on the digital sector's energy consumption, the objective is to deploy 1,300 building blocks by 2050 to achieve 1 gigawatt, according to Dumestier.
[...] Michael Winterson, managing director of the European Data Centre Association, acknowledges that a space data center would benefit from increased efficiency from solar power without the interruption of weather patterns - but the center would require significant amounts of rocket fuel to keep it in orbit.
Winterson estimates that even a small 1 megawatt center in low earth orbit would need around 280,000 kilograms of rocket fuel per year at a cost of around $140 million in 2030 - a calculation based on a significant decrease in launch costs, which has yet to take place.
"There will be specialist services that will be suited to this idea, but it will in no way be a market replacement," said Winterson.
"Applications that might be well served would be very specific, such as military/surveillance, broadcasting, telecommunications and financial trading services. All other services would not competitively run from space," he added in emailed comments.
New work title -- space janitor. I wonder if he will have to attend meetings in the 'office'?
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