Why Put a Data Center in Space Instead of Beaming the Power Down?

Baiju Bhatt says the power should be used in space instead of beamed to Earth, because transmission and the conversion from electrical to optical and back throw away a lot of energy. Harnessing the power in space and using it there leaves more energy to work with, and from a first-principles standpoint that should produce better economics than beaming it to the ground.

Layering compute on a commoditized service like energy brings more margin on the way to break-even. The path he landed on was space solar power plus compute: data centers in space, without the power-beaming part of space solar. Toward the end of last year and the beginning of this year, the plan locked onto the unit economics of a GPU hour from space. That means the cost of the solar panels and how many are needed, the radiator and how much of it is needed, and how to compete with doing the work on the ground. The core of the architecture is to treat the data center, the satellite, and the rocket program as one integrated design.