Orbital Data Centers Yes or No
Eager Space3 HN recommenders · 2025–2026
18K views · explainer · dated · Uploaded 2025-06-19
Eager Space examines the practicality of putting data centers in orbit, walking through three scenarios with cost calculations and the launch cost reductions that would be required.
Recommended in orbital data center threads as a thorough, numbers-based assessment.
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3 comments from Hacker News
We've officially lost the plot, we will now ship our AI data centers to ~space~ ... This will not work with modern technology. The sun will be eclipsed by earth many times per day, requiring you to either shift all workloads or add substantial UPS weight. The radiator grid you need to cool 125kw is something like 16x the size of the entire data center. I watched this video last week that went into 3 different scenarios, it's a good watch. [VIDEO]
Eager space did a pretty thorough hypothetical cost breakdown of orbital data centers that I recommend. [VIDEO]
Eager Space [Orbital Data Centers Yes or No]( [VIDEO] ) Goes into great detail with extensive calculations (for a YT video at least). TLDR: Cost to orbit needs to be under $200/kg before it makes sense.