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An in-space construction firm says it can help build massive data centers in orbit
(arstechnica.com)
this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2025
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Well, in 2022 Qtar spent $220b to have some football matches in the desert... and didn't the cost of launching stuff on orbit substantially decreased in the last decade? Again, give a few decades, technology makes everything easier. If you were making that same math just ten years ago, your 10x cheaper would be higher than your current estimate.
But why?
This was a totally unrealistic estimate, it’s probably more like trillions of R&D and launches. But even if it’s not, why on Earth would anyone spend that money when it’s so easy to and cheap to put data centers on Earth? We have tons of land! We have tons of space for making energy! And ocean! We can swap the servers out when they go obsolete in a few years! What’s the benefit to putting this same stuff in space?
It’s like discussing orbital, beamed solar power when land-based solar arrays are dirt cheap, yet barely getting funded as is. It’s an interesting thought experiment on using the higher solar flux, yes, and it abruptly ends when you start to consider practicality.
Right now Japan is finding easier to have outsourced people operating robots in convenience stores than hiring some local... like, when you add the cost of the robot, its maintenance, and you still have to pay someone to operate it... I also don't know why.
That’s pretty interesting. I guess the candidate pool may be close to zero (and highly unreliable) in certain places.