zlacker

>>g-mork+(OP)
> it is possible to put 500 to 1000 TW/year of AI satellites into deep space, meaningfully ascend the Kardashev scale and harness a non-trivial percentage of the Sun’s power

We currently make around 1 TW of photovoltaic cells per year, globally. The proposal here is to launch that much to space every 9 hours, complete with attached computers, continuously, from the moon.

edit: Also, this would capture a very trivial percentage of the Sun's power. A few trillionths per year.

>>gok+h4
In fairness, solar cells can be about 5x more efficient in space (irradiance, uptime).

>>moeadh+Lf
And how much of that power would be spent on high speed communications with Earth that aren't, you know, a megabit or two per second

>>bastaw+ri
The intractable problem is heat dissipation. There is to little matter in space to absorb excess heat. You'd need thermal fins bigger than the solar cells. The satellite's mass would be dominated by the solar panels and heat fins such that maybe 1% of the mass would be usable compute. It would be 1000x easier to leave them on the moon and dissipate into the ground and 100000x easier to just keep making them on earth.

>>tootie+YG
> The intractable problem is heat dissipation.

3 times the area of the heat dissipating surface compared to solar panel surface brings the satellite temp down to 27 deg C (300 K):

>>46862869

> There is to little matter in space to absorb excess heat.

If that were true the Earth would have overheated, molten and turned to plasma long ago. Earth cools by.... radiative cooling. Dark space is 4 K, thats -267.15 deg C or -452.47 deg Fahrenheit. Stefan-Boltzmann law can cool your satellite just fine.

> You'd need thermal fins bigger than the solar cells.

Correct, my pessimistic calculation results in a factor of 3,...

but also Incorrect, there wouldn't be "fins" thats only useful for heat conduction and convection.