this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2026
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In a blog post, Musk said the acquisition was warranted because global electricity demand for AI cannot be met with “terrestrial solutions,” and Silicon Valley will soon need to build data centers in space to power its AI ambitions.

This dumb fuck. Unfortunately, his boosters will be all-in on this messaging. Whatever.

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[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 15 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

What advantage does space provide at all?

You have to transport heavy great into a place with no cooling capacity... What?

[–] rimu@piefed.social 14 points 2 weeks ago

No advantage, in fact a massive disadvantage.

Fascists lie.

[–] acosmichippo@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

mainly no red tape trying to connect to a power grid, plus "free" solar power.

[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

We have “free” solar here on Earth. 

[–] acosmichippo@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

for half a day yeah, minus clouds etc. That requires expensive batteries or grid power especially in winter.

In space the idea is to use orbits where they can catch 24 hours of sun.

[–] sqgl@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

No cooling capacity? Isn't it the extreme opposite?

[–] ebc@lemmy.ca 27 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

No, it's pretty hard to get rid of heat in space, vacuum is a very good insulator. The only way is radiation.

[–] Chronographs@lemmy.zip 19 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

No, space isn’t cold it’s empty. You need something to conduct away the heat, otherwise all you can do is passively radiate it

[–] sqgl@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Fascinating. Will look more into it to understand.

[–] Dultas@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I think Scott Manly might have had a video on it (data enter in space) recently. I saw it on a feed but haven't watched it. I'm sure he would mention the issues with heat removal.

[–] MalReynolds@slrpnk.net 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

https://youtu.be/DCto6UkBJoI

TLDW: cooling's fine if you use starlink V2 size and power (which is not very suitable for AI 'datacentre' use) because it works already.

This is not about a few huge datacentres, it's about a million small ones. There’s 99 problems with this (see Kessler syndrome !, radiation, …), cooling isn’t (much of) one.

Doesn't matter anyway, it just has to be vaguely plausible for a stock IPO pump (and dump) scheme while sweeping all that xAI debt under the rug.

[–] sqgl@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

https://youtu.be/d-YcVLq98Ew&t=8m24s

Doesn't say why a vacuum cannot conduct heat though, but it makes sense to me now anyhow. Heat is vibrating molecules so to mitigate the vibration you need adjacent molecules which aren't vibrating as much.

[–] jagermo@feddit.org 1 points 2 weeks ago

Read the traveller sourcebooks, they especially for the ship designs. Good stuff

[–] Herr_S_aus_H@lemmy.zip -3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Welcome to middle school physics.

[–] Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 weeks ago

Don't be a dick. Not everyone remembers everything they did in middle school.