Talk:Space-based data center

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Feedback from New Page Review process

I left the following feedback for the creator/future reviewers while reviewing this article: Topic appears notable and has good coverage, even if this article may not totally reflect that.

aaronneallucas (talk) 02:51, 13 December 2025 (UTC)

Challenging the thermal control advantage proposed by User:Wikideas1

In the original 1st revision, it was listed as an advantage the following: "Radiative cooling in space reduces energy needed for thermal control".

I will remove this statement because it isn't an advantage (as I will explain) but a challenge (or one could say disadvantage).

As of today, it is unclear if those space DC (data centre) are going to be in low Earth orbit (LEO) or other type of orbit. As latency could be crucial or on-orbit servicing (OOS) might be needed, I would assume that they will use the LEO orbit.

Now, I am no spacecraft engineer, but I worked about 25 years on space ground system and gathered some knowledge about spacecraft over the years. So in a LEO lane, a satellite is never exposed constantly to sun rays. That has several consequences. One is thermal control, this means that temperature will drop significantly when in eclipse (in the Earth shadow) and significant increase when exposed to the sun light ("moving through temperatures from -170°C to +120°C every 90mins" source: ). This means that you need to cool the data centre when exposed and to warm it when in eclipse. And the other consequence is that the satellite needs to store energy to use during each eclipse.

Thermal control in space or a vacuum isn't the same as on Earth where air can transport heat away. Excess heat needs to be radiated away. On top, In LEO, you need to account of the Earth heat radiation. To cool down, you need to use heat shields to radiate the excess back in space. And to warm up, you need energy to heat the satellite instruments. But when it is cold, it is when you are in eclipse, so no sun light, no electricity from the solar panels. You need batteries. If modern electronic does not like temperature swings, batteries tolerate them even less. For spacecraft, we often use special electronic that can sustain higher and lower temperature than your standard server, but those are definitely not high GHz, high TDP, nm manufacturing process! So if newest generation AI optimised electronic can sustain space environment is to be seen. I don't say it does not work, but we cannot list it as a possibility yet. So talking about thermal control in space as an advantage is just speculation.

Energy storage to use during eclipse is another challenge. In thermal control, I already mentioned that energy need to be stored to maintain temperature during eclipse. But during eclipse you also need energy to power up the DC. I assume the DC in space won't be as big as those on Earth, but I am still wondering how much battery that will require to power it up. This adds up to the weight of such spacecraft.

Of course that my view and I didn't take time to back it by sources online. This is just what I learned over 25 years of career. I am open to feedback on this. Huygens 25 (talk) 12:31, 3 February 2026 (UTC)

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