OK, sometimes you have to fight the odds, push technology to the limit to make the unimaginable possible to achieve something great.
But I still do net see the benefit of putting data centers into space. Even after solving all those problems that are mentioned by the article, what is the upside compared to just building a data center with solar panels and a big battery down on earth? Even powering them with gas turbines seems to be more environment friendly and cost efficient than shooting thousands of rockets into space and have the data centers burn up in the atmosphere after 6 years.
I imagine that it’s less of an administrative process; less people to answer to
Space is one of the more regulated places (probably depends on ‘space’ definition tho).
And yet I hear about startups getting permission to shoot shit up there on a weekly basis…
Compared to what? And who is enforcing those regulations?
Compared to earth, governments and countries that signed Outer space treaties and there is a lot of administrative hurdles you need to overcome to launch even 1U cubesat (and it takes years) and you need to comply with your launch provider and you need to comply with eco and ethics requirements, and you need to comply with telecomunnication requirements, and you need to have a license to operate. There is a million requirements from a hundred differe nt bodies both domestic and international.
Or just grease the current US executive branch with some complimentary words, request permission to launch, and bam!
It’s not enough, there are a lot of institutions that require grease.