Hacker Neue

Preferences
wat10000 parent
Putting data centers on ships in international waters would be just as effective at evading government control (i.e. not very) while being orders of magnitude easier and cheaper to build and operate.
bouncycastle
Recently the USA blew out some some boats in international waters and came back to finish off the survivors, despite thin evidence and no due process, while maintaining that it was legal. If those data centers on ships ever become declared as a 'threat to national security' then they might get the same treatment.
collinmcnulty
I think GP's point is that an advanced nation-state could just as easily shoot down an orbiting data center as an oceanic data center and that "international space" offers an equally flimsy defense as "international waters" but a much larger price.
ACCount37
Antisatellite weapons are expensive and rare, and also woefully inadequate for dealing with megaconstellations.

If there's one large orbital datacenter, then sure, ASAT is a threat to it. But if it's a dispersed swarm like the Starlink system?

Good luck making a dent in that. You'd run out of ASAT long before Musk runs out of Starlink.

snowwrestler
Swarms of satellites need to maneuver, which includes maneuvering directly toward the atmosphere.

It would take zero anti-satellite weapons to take down Starlink. Just point a good old fashioned gun at the SpaceX engineer who can issue maneuvering commands to the satellites.

verzali
You only need to destroy a few. Then you have a cloud of debris that will take down the rest or at the very least force them to use all their fuel making evasive manoeuvres.
bregma
And they'd get away with it too if it weren't for that pesky orbital mechanics.
ACCount37
Not really. Space is too large.
3 More Comments →
wat10000 OP
Blow up the ground stations. Or the CEO.
ACCount37
Good fucking luck. Starlink's ground infrastructure is absurdly decentralized. Laser links make that possible.

Starlink can even bounce data P2P, from one client terminal to another.

3 More Comments →
gpm
This would be equally true in space.
NoMoreNicksLeft
If those ships chose to not fly a flag, they'd even have justification to do so. And if they did choose to fly a flag, then that country would have the responsibility to police them, and is the US complained to that country, that country might just withdraw protection anyway. Data center ships just want to loiter where convenient, they're not cigarette boats flying along at 100mph... no way to evade a navy that wants to blow them out of the water.
echelon
They've always been able to do this.

Microsoft was talking about submarine data centers powered by tidal forces in the early 2000s.

There have been talks of data centers on Sealand-like nation states.

Geothermal ...

Exotic data center builds will always be hyped. Always be within the realm of feasibility when cost is no object, but probably outside of practicality or need.

Next it'll be fusion-powered data centers.

cwal37
Commonwealth Fusion Systems called dibs on next last year by saying they’re gonna have a Dominion (Virginia) commercial site up and running in the early 2030s.

https://cfs.energy/news-and-media/commonwealth-fusion-system...

rgmerk
Is there a way I can take bets on this not happening? Because I’d sure like to.
cwal37
Despite the massive PPAs that have already been signed on a chunk of the plant’s planned output I also find it very hard to believe.

This item has no comments currently.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Story Lists

j
Next story
k
Previous story
Shift+j
Last story
Shift+k
First story
o Enter
Go to story URL
c
Go to comments
u
Go to author

Navigation

Shift+t
Go to top stories
Shift+n
Go to new stories
Shift+b
Go to best stories
Shift+a
Go to Ask HN
Shift+s
Go to Show HN

Miscellaneous

?
Show this modal