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THE VIDEO SHELF · orbital data centers

Does It Make Sense To Put Data Centers In Space? Can They Really Cost Less To Operate?

Scott Manley analyzes the idea of putting data centers in orbit, prompted by Lumen Orbit's funding. He examines the claimed advantage of constant solar power against launch cost, cooling and mass.

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Why HN readers recommended it

Recommended in orbital data center threads as a sober explanation of why the idea doesn't work out economically or thermally.

This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.

Video & recommendation details

Creator / channel
Scott Manley
Topic
orbital data centers
Format
explainer
Level
intermediate
HN recommenders in dataset
3
HN mentions in dataset
4
Recommendation years in dataset
2024–2025

These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.

From the original HN conversations

Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.

  • Scott Manley has published a video a few months ago explaining why putting data centers in space is an absolutely terrible idea. Lumen Orbit, the company mentioned, is a former name of Starcloud. [VIDEO]

    shantara on Hacker News · 2025-05
    In Starcloud

  • The great Scott Manley did a video about that: [VIDEO] basically it doesn't make sense with current technologiesa and even with Starship's proposed specs/price it won't be profitable. Check it out...

    freefaler on Hacker News · 2025-12
    In Nvidia-backed Starcloud trains first AI model in space, orbital data centers

  • Scott Manley had a video about this last year. [VIDEO] The short of it is that cooling is likely the biggest problem, given you will need to pump the heat to the backside and radiate it away, and the amount of mass you will need …

    Ataraxic on Hacker News · 2025-12
    In Economics of Orbital vs. Terrestrial Data Centers

Summaries, classifications and recommendation records are from the HackerTube source dataset. Read about this library and its limitations.

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