Starcloud can’t put a data centre in space at $8.2M in one Starship

Why do they want to put a data center in space in the first place?

Free cooling?

Doesn't make much sense to me. As the article points out the radiators need to me massive.

Access to solar energy?

Solar is more efficient in space, I'll give them that, but does that really outweigh the whole hassle to put the panels in space in the first place?

Physical isolation and security?

Against manipulation maybe, but not against denial of service. Willfully damaged satellite is something I expect to see in the news in the foreseeable future.

Low latency comms?

Latency is limited by distance and speed of light. Everyone with a satellite internet connections knows that low latency is not a particular strength of it.

Marketing and PR?

That, probably.

EDIT:

Thought of another one:

Environmental impact?

No land use, no thermal stress for rivers on one hand but the huge overhead of a space launch on the other.

One of the answers in OP is

> A lot of waste heat is generated running TDCs, which contributes to climate change—so migrating to space would alleviate the toll on Earth’s thermal budget. This seems like a compelling environmental argument. TDCs already consume about 1-1.5% of global electricity and it’s safe to assume that this will only grow in the pursuit of AGI.

The comparison here is between solar powered TDCs in Space vs TDCs on Earth.

- A TDC in space contributes to global warming due to mining+manufacturing emissions and spaceflight emissions.

- A comparable TDC on Earth would be solar+battery run. You will likely need a larger solar panel array than in space. Note a solar panel in operation does not really contribute to global warming. So the question is whether the additional Earth solar panel+battery manufacturing emissions are greater than launching the smaller array + TDC into space.

I would guess launching into space has much higher emissions.