josh buermannFeb 12
Everybody glibly reporting Elon's pivot to DATA CENTERS IN SPAAACE has owned a vacuum insulated coffee mug and a fan-cooled GPU. It doesn't seem like it should take more than a consumer grade level of physics reasoning to ask after the technical challenge of keeping 400W GPUs running inside a thermos without melting.
Show threadjosh buermannFeb 12

The ISS' 1,633 pound External Active Thermal Control System -- a heat pump cycling superheated ammonia through white sails to dump infrared into space -- radiates up to 14,000 Watts of heat to handle an upper bound of 35 400W GPUs. Good luck with that.

https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/473486main_iss_atcs_overview.pdf?emrc=046ace

Show threadjosh buermann
A revealed preference in how techbros keep blathering about putting AIs' resistance heaters in space rather than district heating.
Feb 24 at 8:10pmWeb
Show threadjosh buermann9h ago

PUT THEM IN THE VACUUM OF SPACE

https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/30/climate/data-centers-are-having-an-underrported

Scientists have found an alarming environmental impact of vast data centers

The vast data centers that power artificial intelligence are so energy hungry that they’re heating up their surroundings, according to new research. It’s an alarming finding given the number of data centers is predicted to explode over the next few years.

CNN