There is a white paper on DC in space: https://go.avalanchetechnology.com/datacenters-in-space-whitepaper Hesham On Thu, Apr 20, 2023, 2:32 AM Chris Adams wrote: > Hi folks, > > Is there a link to the underlying assumptions in for this "data centres in > space” story or the report? > > The press release mentioned *solar powerplants generating several hundred > megawatts*. That would require a *massive* amount of solar! > > For context, this list here shows the largest solar plants in the US, as > of June 2021: > > https://list.solar/plants/largest-plants/solar-plants-usa/ > > Even the smallest one, kicking out 200 Megawatts has a surface areas of > 5.1 square kilometers, and it only goes upward from there. > > For this to be plausible, you’d need panels to be orders of magnitude more > efficient than they are on land when in space, even before you think about > how heavy it would be get multiple square kilometres of solar panel into > orbit. > > C > > > > Chris Adams > > Executive Director > > w: thegreenwebfoundation.org > e: chris@thegreenwebfoundation.org > t: @mrchrisadams > > German Office > Naunynstrasse 40 > 10999 Berlin > Germany > > See our contact page for more details > https://www.thegreenwebfoundation.org/contact/ > > Book a short call with me to discuss something. > https://cal.com/mrchrisadams > Chris Adams > > Executive Director > > w: thegreenwebfoundation.org > e: chris@thegreenwebfoundation.org > t: @mrchrisadams > > German Office > Naunynstrasse 40 > 10999 Berlin > Germany > > See our contact page for more details > https://www.thegreenwebfoundation.org/contact/ > > Book a short call with me to discuss something. > https://cal.com/mrchrisadams > > > On 20. Apr 2023, at 07:43, Daniel Schien > 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 > > ------------------------------ > *From:* E-impact on behalf of Vint Cerf 40google.com@dmarc.ietf.org> > *Sent:* Thursday, April 20, 2023 2:16:38 AM > *To:* tom@evslin.com > *Cc:* Michael Richardson ; starlink < > starlink@lists.bufferbloat.net>; e-impact@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@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 On Behalf Of > Michael Richardson via Starlink > Sent: Wednesday, April 19, 2023 7:35 PM > To: starlink ; e-impact@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. > > _______________________________________________ > Starlink mailing list > Starlink@lists.bufferbloat.net > https://lists.bufferbloat.net/listinfo/starlink > > _______________________________________________ > Starlink mailing list > Starlink@lists.bufferbloat.net > https://lists.bufferbloat.net/listinfo/starlink > > > > -- > Please send any postal/overnight deliveries to: > Vint Cerf > Google, LLC > 1900 Reston Metro Plaza, 16th Floor > Reston, VA 20190 > +1 (571) 213 1346 > > > until further notice > > > > -- > E-impact mailing list > E-impact@ietf.org > https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/e-impact > > > -- > E-impact mailing list > E-impact@ietf.org > https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/e-impact >