Elon Musk on data centers in orbit: "SpaceX will be doing this"(arstechnica.com)
arstechnica.com
Elon Musk on data centers in orbit: "SpaceX will be doing this"
https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/10/elon-musk-on-data-centers-in-orbit-spacex-will-be-doing-this/
4 comments
Heat rejection in space is a big problem.
The best you are going to do is have a black body radiator pointed away from the Sun.
Intel chips are rated for a maximum temperature of 100 centigrade, I get 1100 W/m. Contrast that to the solar constant of about 1400 W/m. If you assume solar panels are about 20% efficient, you are going to get 280 W of power from a meter of solar panel which all turns into heat so we need 1/4 meter of cooling panel for a meter of solar panels.
The question though isn't the area but rather the weight and the cost, the solar panels could be very lightweight films printed onto membranes whereas the cooling panels will need circulating fluids, but heat pipes are pretty high density.
Intel chips are rated for a maximum temperature of 100 centigrade, I get 1100 W/m. Contrast that to the solar constant of about 1400 W/m. If you assume solar panels are about 20% efficient, you are going to get 280 W of power from a meter of solar panel which all turns into heat so we need 1/4 meter of cooling panel for a meter of solar panels.
The question though isn't the area but rather the weight and the cost, the solar panels could be very lightweight films printed onto membranes whereas the cooling panels will need circulating fluids, but heat pipes are pretty high density.
With an electrically powered solid state heat pump, the emission surface can be >100°C while keeping the chips <100°C.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric_heat_pump
You’ll need extra radiators for cooling the pumps.