This is why I mentioned how much radiative cooling sucks. Yes, space is really, really cold. It’s also really, really empty. The only time a difference in temperature matters is when you have objects at different temperatures in contact. Then the hotter object can transfer energy to the colder object. In space, there is almost nothing for the hot object to be in contact with, so it cannot transfer heat that way. It will radiate heat, but that is slow. Spacesuits use systems which sublimate water to carry that heat away. But that system means having to replenish the liquid constantly. That’s fine for one human’s worth of heat on a spaceflight. For a data center, that will be a massive amount of liquid.
Or, they will use a stationary orbit, but that means no sunlight.
Ya, they’ll want the sunlight. One of the big benefits of space based stuff is 24x7 solar power. And sunlight which hasn’t been scattered by an atmosphere. The energy density of sunlight in orbit is several times the energy density of sunlight on the ground of Earth. More, if you are comparing it to the higher latitudes where the oblique angle of incidence makes the light less concentrated. It’s the main reason space based solar arrays beaming power back to the ground via microwaves or lasers was actually considered. If access to space was cheap enough, it could become economically viable. Though, probably not soon. But, all that extra power in the sunlight also makes cooling even harder.
This is why I mentioned how much radiative cooling sucks. Yes, space is really, really cold. It’s also really, really empty. The only time a difference in temperature matters is when you have objects at different temperatures in contact. Then the hotter object can transfer energy to the colder object. In space, there is almost nothing for the hot object to be in contact with, so it cannot transfer heat that way. It will radiate heat, but that is slow. Spacesuits use systems which sublimate water to carry that heat away. But that system means having to replenish the liquid constantly. That’s fine for one human’s worth of heat on a spaceflight. For a data center, that will be a massive amount of liquid.
Ya, they’ll want the sunlight. One of the big benefits of space based stuff is 24x7 solar power. And sunlight which hasn’t been scattered by an atmosphere. The energy density of sunlight in orbit is several times the energy density of sunlight on the ground of Earth. More, if you are comparing it to the higher latitudes where the oblique angle of incidence makes the light less concentrated. It’s the main reason space based solar arrays beaming power back to the ground via microwaves or lasers was actually considered. If access to space was cheap enough, it could become economically viable. Though, probably not soon. But, all that extra power in the sunlight also makes cooling even harder.