But despite the science-fiction rhetoric, the SpaceX S-1 filing’s citing of complexity and “unproven technologies” is one of the more realistic renditions of what is involved in sighting data centres of any size in orbit. Speaking to npr.org, Olivier de Week, professor of astronautics at MIT, described the solar panels capable of powering a gigawatt data centre as “feasible, but not next year and certainly not in three years.” To place the size of a necessary solar array in context, the international space station’s (ISS) solar…
