🛰 AI Data Centers in Space Called “a Terrible Idea”
A former NASA and Google engineer, a specialist in space electronics, called the idea of building space-based AI data centers (powered by GPUs/TPUs) “absolutely impractical”, arguing that AI-class electronics are fundamentally incompatible with the conditions of space.
The largest solar array on the ISS (2,500 m²) can power only about ~200 GPUs. A large-scale AI data center would require launching hundreds of satellites the size of the ISS.
There is no convection in a vacuum. Radiators used to dissipate GPU heat would need to be enormous. The ISS radiator (42.5 m²) cools only 16 GPUs. Scaling is impossible.
Modern GPUs and TPUs are highly vulnerable to cosmic radiation, which causes soft errors (SEU) and can irreversibly damage chips through latch-up.
As a result, the need to launch hundreds of massive satellites, unsolvable heat-dissipation constraints, and radiation-incompatible chips make the project economically and technically pointless.
