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Data centers raise nearby temperatures by up to 4 degrees in Phoenix
(techxplore.com)
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this post was submitted on 19 May 2026
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I read an article a month or two ago that explained without an atmosphere to carry away the heat, the chips would just super-heat and melt.
That article was incorrect, then. There are many satellites already in orbit that have computers in them - basically all of them do, nowadays - and cooling them is a well understood engineering problem.
The satellite computers don't perform as much work, produce as much heat, or are as densely placed as those in the data centers.
So don't pack them as densely as Earth-based data centers are packed.
In another comment in this thread I posted a link to a youtube video by Scott Manley explaining the math and engineering behind cooling computer hardware in space, it's actually pretty straightforward.
How was it incorrect? How can you transfer heat away from the electronics into another medium when there is no other medium because it's in space?
Same way radiation heat works from the sun.