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  "path": "/article/4128918/musks-million-data-centers-in-space-wont-fly-say-experts.html",
  "publishedAt": "2026-02-06T17:21:43.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.computerworld.com",
  "tags": [
    "Aerospace and Defense Industry, Data Center, Industry, Manufacturing Industry, Markets, SpaceX, Vendors and Providers",
    "one million data centers orbiting the Earth",
    "told The Associated Press"
  ],
  "textContent": "SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has announced plans to put a million data centers in space, a program he hopes will help meet the growing demand for existing facilities on earth driven by the increasing use of AI.\n\nExperts, however, have dismissed the idea of data centers in space as completely impractical.\n\nThermal management is one problem they will face: data centers generate enormous heat and because space is a vacuum there would no easy way for that heat to dissipate: it can’t be shed through conduction or convection as in terrestrial data centers, only through radiation.\n\nThen there is the problem of malfunctioning data centers and how to fix damaged or malfunctioning hardware. Technicians are used to being on call to handle emergency callouts, but a trip out of the atmosphere may be a journey too far.\n\nWith the thermal stresses on equipment, and the risk of catastrophic damage from the impact of tiny dust particles, malfunctions could be much more common than on earth.\n\nThere’s also the issue of more serious space collisions: One satellite malfunctioning and drifting out of control could cause a heap of problems, and with one million data centers orbiting the Earth, there would be a much bigger risk of collision, with debris damaging many other satellites too.\n\n“We could reach a tipping point where the chance of collision is going to be too great,” University at Buffalo’s John Crassidis, a former NASA engineer, told The Associated Press. “And these objects are going fast about 17,500 miles per hour. There could be very violent collisions.”",
  "title": "Musk’s million data centers in space won’t fly, say experts"
}