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| Server Sky is speculative. The most likely showstopper is radiation damage. However, the constraints are different for server sky, and those differences may bring new solutions to this decades-old problem. | Server Sky is speculative. The most likely showstopper is radiation damage. However, the constraints are different for server sky, and those differences may bring new solutions to the radiation damage problem. |
Server Sky - internet and computation in orbit
It is easier to move bits than atoms or energy.
Server-sats are ultralight disks of silicon that convert sunlight into computation and communications. Powered by a large solar cell, propelled and steered by light pressure, networked and located by microwaves, and cooled by radiation into deep space. Arrays of thousands of server-sats act as highly redundant computation and database servers, as well as phased array antennas to reach thousands of transceivers on the ground.
First generation server-sats are 400 millimeters across ( about 16 inches ) and 0.1 millimeters (100 microns) thick, and weigh 30 grams. They can be mass produced with off-the-shelf semiconductor technologies. Gallium arsenide radio chips provide intra-array, inter-array, and ground communication, as well as precise precision information. Server-sats are launched stacked by the thousands in solid cylinders, shrouded and vibration isolated inside a traditional satellite bus.
Traditional data centers consume more than 2% of US electrical power, and this fraction is growing rapidly. Server arrays in orbit can grow to virtually unlimited computation power, communicate with the whole world, pay for themselves with electricity savings, and greatly reduce pollution and resource usage in the biosphere.
Server Sky is speculative. The most likely showstopper is radiation damage. However, the constraints are different for server sky, and those differences may bring new solutions to the radiation damage problem.
Radios for communication, interconnect, synchronization, radar, and orientation
Future Possibilities - low cost launch, terascale arrays, beam power to Earth, scientific sensors
This website is under construction - most of the sections need filling in.