Orbital Compute Inc. really officially submitted documents for the registration of a large-scale constellation with 100 000 orbital server satellites. The project is aimed at transferring computing power for artificial intelligence (NE) into the cosmos, to solve energy shortage problems, water and territory on Earth. The reason for launching such data centers into orbit is:
Constant energy: Satellites operate in orbits with continuous sunlight.
Ecological cooling: Space vacuum allows heat to be discharged through radiators without water consumption.
Bypassing restrictions: There is no need to obtain building permits.
According to the analytical reports of Electronics360, each full-sized satellite will have a wingspan of approx 100 meters and weight to 2 tons.
2027 year: Launch of the first single-GPU demo aboard a Falcon rocket 9.
2028 year: Deployment of the first full-fledged specialized satellite Orbital-1.
Constellation scaling to planned 100 000 units.
The project faces harsh criticism from experts due to engineering and environmental obstacles: Complexity of cooling: Dissipating heat in a vacuum requires giant heat sinks. Space debris: The risk of the Kessler effect (cascade of collisions) is growing sharply.
Problems for astronomy: Huge solar panels and radiators can block the view of the night sky for telescopes.
The move comes amid a global race, where are the competitors, including SpaceX with their plans for orbital data centers, applications are also submitted for the launch of computer systems into space.
Source: https://spacenews.com