zlacker

>>pseudo+(OP)
> Some parts of the moon are permanently shadowed and therefore extremely cold, as low as -173 °C. This means that no energy or water would need to be expended to cool the data center.

That doesn't sound right to me. If there's no air, then only black body radiation can be used to cool the data center. That means a massive radiator, a lot larger than a heat-to-air radiator+fan used on earth.

>>M95D+E6
Conduction through the ground? Or run coolant through buried pipes. Just a pump; no significant energy to cool, just move the coolant.

>>JoeAlt+97
Just ship all that heavy coolant up there first

>>ok_dad+j9
... and digging/drilling equipment.

>>M95D+Zc
Or just burying equipment. Everythng is very cold. No need to get deep. Cover them in regolith, freely available.

>>JoeAlt+Je
Rock is so well known as a thermal insulator that we build buildings from it (brick, concrete, stone blocks). I don't think it's going to help much with your heat transfer problem.

>>ok_dad+e61
Rats. I can't seem to find the thermal properties of regolith. Mostly rock, some heavy metals.

>>JoeAlt+UG2
I read somewhere else that regolith is spiny and porous, and with the leading theory of the moon being that it was the result of some massive object hitting Earth a long time ago, and then the ejected material coalescing in orbit and cooling, it makes sense to me that it would be more of an insulator than a conductor. I only know a bit of materials science from what I learned in nuclear power school back in the day, but for a conductor you want to have, generally, no air voids. I recall learning how bubbles in the steel for the plant could not only lead to failures, but also lead to thermal stress points because heat would build up on the "thinner" cross section of metal when there were pores all over (heat transfer being dependent a lot on the cross sectional width, IIRC). Anyways, it's unlikely they'll actually build anything on the moon anytime soon, especially a "data center".