The environmental cost of putting data centers in space

SpaceX and startups like Starcloud want to put solar-powered data centers in orbit. There are challenges.

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When SpaceX filed an FCC application earlier this year proposing to launch a million satellite data centers into orbit, the company argued the project would have no meaningful environmental impact. On SpaceX’s website, Elon Musk made the case for space-based AI infrastructure in simpler terms: “It’s always sunny in space,” he wrote, arguing that orbital data centers are “obviously the only way to........

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