[ExI] This is just what an orbital data center needs

[John Clark]

 On Tue, Jun 30, 2026 at 1:26 PM spike jones via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

*> we need a subcategory: those who think the orbiting data center is a
> good idea, but who know it won't work.  I derived the math model for it 34
> years ago and found there wasn't enough power available and even if there
> is enough power from a nuclear reactor, there isn't nearly enough heat
> rejection capacity.  It would be cool as all hell if we could, but...
> analogous to all hell... it gets too hot*


*Just last week IBM announced they had made an experimental chip that
contains about 6000 transistors and it used molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂)
instead of silicon. It formed a two-dimensional semiconductor only a single
molecule thick, so they can be stacked on top of each other. IBM said
the molybdenum disulfide chip was 50% faster than a silicon chip while
using 70% less electrical energy, but most important of all it can operate
at much higher temperatures. A silicon chip needs to be below 80°C ( 353
K), a molybdenum disulfide chip needs to be below 500°C (773 K).  *

*The area a space radiator needs to be to get rid of a given amount of heat
energy is inversely proportional to the temperature raised to the fourth
power. (353/773)^4= 0.044;  so if an orbital data center used molybdenum
disulfide instead of silicon then its heat radiation panels would only need
to have 4.4% of the area that a data center using silicon would need.
And **molybdenum
disulfide is less vulnerable to cosmic radiation than silicon is. **I think
all this makes the idea of orbital data centers much more practical. Step
one, an orbital data center. Step two, a Dyson swarm. *


*Silicon Is Over. Here's What's Next*
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Wh5kOgcpcA>

*John K Clark    See what's on my list at  Extropolis
<https://groups.google.com/g/extropolis>*
evt
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