Orbital AI data centers could work, but they might ruin Earth in the process

Elon Musk's plan to launch millions of AI satellites
 could be disastrous for the planet.
 (Lily Padula for Engadget)

A single collision could cause a cascading effect in orbit.

At the start of the month, Elon Musk announced that two of his companies — SpaceX and xAI  — were merging and would jointly launch a constellation of 1 million satellites to operate as orbital data centers. Musk's reputation might suggest otherwise, but according to experts, such a plan isn't a complete fantasy. However, if executed at the scale suggested, some of them believe it would have devastating effects on the environment and the sustainability of low Earth Earth orbit.

Musk and others argue that putting data centers in space is practical given how much more efficient solar panels are away from Earth's atmosphere. In space, there are no clouds or weather events to obscure the sun, and in the correct orbit, solar panels can collect sunlight through much of the day. In combination with declining rocket launch costs and the price of powering AI data centers on Earth, Musk has said that within three years space will be the cheapest way to generate AI compute power.

By Igbor Bonifacic

Full story at Yahoo News