Musk's Most Moronic Idea To Date

Data centres, but in space!

Photo by SpaceX on Unsplash

Musk isn’t known for having the most rational ideas. From the Hyperloop to Optimus and even Starship, the majority of his grand plans turn to utter shite the minute they face reality. But, egged on by his billionaire frenemies, Musk has only gone and outdone himself this time. As the AI bubble threatens to pop, the billionaires who backed it are desperately trying to keep the hype train chugging along. For example, Amazon’s Bezos and Google’s Schmidt have publicly declared interest in putting AI data centres in orbit. This is clearly just a PR stunt, an attempt to associate cutting-edge tech with AI, as such a plan makes no sense at all. However, Musk didn’t get that memo. He has now confirmed that the upcoming Starlink V3 satellite will enable a fast enough in-orbit internet connection to make orbiting data centres viable and has confirmed that SpaceX plans to build space-based data centres. So, let’s break down why this plan is utterly moronic.

There is a theoretical benefit to putting data centres in space: energy. Running data centres requires a serious amount of energy, and supplying that energy on Earth is expensive and horrifically bad for the environment (as well as people’s wallets). However, in orbit, particularly geostationary orbit, there is an uninterrupted supply of mighty solar power. So, an orbital data centre can power itself 24/7 for free with a simple solar array.

How much money would that save?

Well, let’s take the latest Nvidia GB200 NVL72 rack. This single 1.36 metric tonne, $3 million unit features 72 GPU chips and is the modular building block of the latest AI data centres. Musk has said he plans to build orbital data centres modularly, so it makes sense to use this rack as a basis for our hypothetical. It draws a nominal 132 kW and is expected to run nonstop for its entire five-year lifespan, with energy costs hovering around $0.1 per kWh, which means this single rack has a lifetime energy cost of $578,160, or 20% of the purchase price of the rack. So, by strapping a solar array to it and lobbing it into orbit, it could, in theory, significantly reduce the lifetime cost of a data centre. And, considering how all data centres are currently losing money hand over fist, that is a huge deal.

But there are some serious modifications, costs, and risks to putting this infrastructure in orbit.

The most significant additional cost is the launch costs. To figure that out, we need to know the mass of the modifications we need to make.

Take cooling. In space, there is only weak radiative cooling, as there is no atmosphere for conductive cooling, which is what all electronics use to cool themselves — it is far more effective. So, unless we want this orbital data centre to melt from its own immense heat, we need to slap on giant space radiators. Using a NASA example of this kind of shield and scaling it to our needs, we find that each rack will require a 33.70-square-metre radiator with a mass of 172 kg. This alone increases the mass of our orbital data centre by 12.6%, which will increase launch costs.

But we also need to find a way to power this data centre. So, how much solar array is required? Well, let’s assume this will be in geostationary orbit, as this will place the data centre in nearly 24/7 sunlight, meaning it will require fewer solar panels and no heavy batteries in comparison to lower orbits. Well, NASA finds that space solar arrays typically produce 66 watts of power for every kg of mass. Therefore, our satellite will require two metric tonnes of solar array. That is 1.4 times the mass of the data centre itself!

Okay, but in geostationary orbit, this satellite will be exposed to the raw radiation of the sun. These high-energy particles can interact with electronics, wiping out data, corrupting files, or straight-up frying them. This isn’t ideal at the best of times, but it is even worse for a data centre that has no business being in space in the first place. As such, we need to cover this rack in top-notch radiation shielding. NASA has found that radiation shielding for geostationary orbit has a mass of around 3 g/cm², meaning we will need 262 kg of the stuff to cover our 60 cm x 106.8 cm x 223.6 cm rack. So radiation shielding is another 20% increase in mass.

There are other systems required, such as a laser-based communications system to transfer data via Starlink, thrusters to maintain orbital position, backup systems, and the like. But let’s be generous and assume this mass is negligible. That would put the mass of our modular orbital data centre at 3,794 kg (given that it would be 1,360 kg for the rack, 2,000 kg for the solar array, 262 kg for radiation shielding, and 172 kg for cooling). How much would it cost to take this one module of the data centre to geostationary orbit?

Well, Starship definitely can’t take it there and likely won’t be able to for a very long time (read more here). So instead, let’s assume SpaceX will use its current cheapest launch vehicle, the Falcon Heavy, and fully maximise its payload capacity with seven of our hypothetical modular orbital data centre satellites. Well, the heavy costs are $3,632 per kg to geostationary orbit, meaning the launch cost per 3,794 kg module would be $13,779,808!