[Starlink] [E-impact] DataCenters in Space (was Re: fiber IXPs in space)

Thu Apr 20 10:36:39 EDT 2023

> The article about the ASCEND project says:
> "Very low ambient temperatures in space will dramatically reduce the need
> for cooling equipment that consumes enormous amounts of energy. A
> significant part of a data center?s energy use is for cooling equipment,
> accounting for more than 50% in some facilities. Temperatures can be as low
> as -292?F (-180?C) when an orbiting object is in the Earth?s shadow."

They seem to have skipped over the con's of trying to cool equipment
in space, there is no "mass" to cool into.  There is no "air" to
cool with.  You have to use conduction to get the heat from your
chips to the outer shell of the spacecraft, then you have to battle
with tring to radiate that heat into a VACUUM!  People think they
have heat limiting issues today with ground based electronis, just
wait tell they try to solve this in a spacecraft!!!

Someone should calculate the radiated surface size needed to remove
the heat generated by a 150W CPU into "space".  It might enlighten
some of these folks that think its all about the temperature of space,
its not, its about the thermal mass of space being near 0.

IMHO DC in space are going to have to find a solution to that MIPS
per W problem first!

> 
> Hesham
> 
> On Wed, Apr 19, 2023, 10:44 PM Daniel Schien <Daniel.Schien at bristol.ac.uk>
> wrote:
> 
> > I assume any object in orbit will be hidden from the sun some of the time.
> > So, the machines will require some pretty big battery to go up with them.
> >
> > I'd like to also know what the launch cost is.
> >
> > Tom Segert estimates in his LinkedIn post, for a 100kg satellite payload:
> >
> > "TL:DR ~57 ton CO2e for a typical ESA satellite (including Ariane 6
> > launch), <15t CO2e for a satellite built in a factory and launched with a
> > re-usable rocket."
> >
> > Depending on the type of server that should go up there, this is a fair
> > amount of carbon to offset from brighter sunlight.
> >
> > The article also gets the carbon footprint wrong:
> >
> > "Data centers are big energy consumers ? between 2% and 3% of all global
> > consumption ? a rate that is doubling every year."
> >
> > The latest was IEA estimating it to be around 220-320 TWh (out of 30,000)
> > in 2021 data and growing between 10-60% over 6 years in total (so let's
> > than 10 CAGR). But it's certainly not doubling every year. That's just
> > completely wrong.
> >
> >
> > Daniel Schien
> >
> > Senior Lecturer in Computer Science
> >
> > Department of Computer Science | University of Bristol
> >
> > *Submit software engineering project ideas for 2022*
> >
> > bris.ac.uk/software-engineering
> > Watch: https://youtu.be/lU-ZsBDFWDI
> >
> > Merchant Venturers Building , Woodland Rd Bristol, BS8 1UB
> > *Book a meeting*:
> > https://outlook.office365.com/owa/calendar/OfficeHours@bristol.ac.uk/booki
> > <https://outlook.office365.com/owa/calendar/OfficeHours@bristol.ac.uk/bookings/>
> > ------------------------------
> > *From:* E-impact <e-impact-bounces at ietf.org> on behalf of Vint Cerf <vint=
> > 40google.com at dmarc.ietf.org>
> > *Sent:* Thursday, April 20, 2023 2:16:38 AM
> > *To:* tom at evslin.com <tom at evslin.com>
> > *Cc:* Michael Richardson <mcr at sandelman.ca>; starlink <
> > starlink at lists.bufferbloat.net>; e-impact at ietf.org <e-impact at ietf.org>
> > *Subject:* Re: [E-impact] [Starlink] DataCenters in Space (was Re: fiber
> > IXPs in space)
> >
> > O&M will be a bear
> > v
> >
> >
> > On Wed, Apr 19, 2023 at 9:13?PM Tom Evslin via Starlink <
> > starlink at lists.bufferbloat.net> wrote:
> >
> > I think space-based data centers will be the rule rather than the
> > exception. Wrote about that a couple of years ago although, as usual,
> > things have not happened as quickly as I predicted
> > https://blog.tomevslin.com/2021/07/computing-clouds-in-orbit-a-possible-roadmap.html
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Starlink <starlink-bounces at lists.bufferbloat.net> On Behalf Of
> > Michael Richardson via Starlink
> > Sent: Wednesday, April 19, 2023 7:35 PM
> > To: starlink <starlink at lists.bufferbloat.net>; e-impact at ietf.org
> > Subject: [Starlink] DataCenters in Space (was Re: fiber IXPs in space)
> >
> >
> > I saw this reported in BIS-Spaceflight.
> > (I'm usually a few months behind in reading it) I like the "first
> > objective"!
> >
> >
> > https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/worldwide/space/press-release/ascend-thales-alenia-space-lead-european-feasibility-study-data
> >
> > Cannes, November 14, 2022 ? Thales Alenia Space, the joint company between
> > Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), has been chosen by the European Commission
> > to lead the ASCEND (Advanced Space Cloud for European Net zero emission and
> > Data sovereignty) feasibility study for data centers in orbit, as part of
> > Europe?s vast Horizon Europe research program.
> >
> > Digital technology?s expanding environmental footprint is becoming a major
> > challenge: the burgeoning need for digitalization means that data centers
> > in Europe and around the world are growing at an exponential pace, which in
> > turn has a critical energy and environmental impact.
> >
> > The first objective of this study will be to assess if the carbon
> > emissions from the production and launch of these space infrastructures
> > will be significantly lower than the emissions generated by ground-based
> > data centers, therefore contributing to the achievement of global carbon
> > neutrality. The second objective will be to prove that it is possible to
> > develop the required launch solution and to ensure the deployment and
> > operability of these spaceborne data centers using robotic assistance
> > technologies currently being developed in Europe, such as the EROSS IOD
> > demonstrator.
> >
> > This project is expected to demonstrate to which extent space-based data
> > centers would limit the energy and environmental impact of their ground
> > counterparts, thus allowing major investments within the scope of Europe?s
> > Green Deal, possibly justifying the development of a more climate-friendly,
> > reusable heavy launch vehicle. Europe could thus regain its leadership in
> > space transport and space logistics, as well as the assembly and operations
> > of large infrastructures in orbit.
> >
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> >
> >
> > --
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> > Vint Cerf
> > Google, LLC
> > 1900 Reston Metro Plaza, 16th Floor
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> >
> >
> > until further notice
> >
> >
> >
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