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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: 4, Informative)

by quadrox@pipedot.org on 2014-03-13 07:13 (#HD)

Your intuition would be right for conductive cooling such as air/water cooling, but the amount of heat that is radiated only depends on the temparature of the object, the environment doesn't influence this in any way.

Moderation

Time Reason Points Voter
2014-03-13 14:43 Informative +1 billshooterofbul@pipedot.org
2014-03-13 10:57 Insightful +1 computermachine@pipedot.org
2014-03-13 07:40 Normal 0 nadaou@pipedot.org
2014-03-13 17:43 Interesting +1 nightsky30@pipedot.org

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