Not stupid at all, Eli...here is a summary of the American Physical Society's opinion on Musk's plan

for AI Datacenters in Space...Again, you need to watch...and listen to...the video presented by a PhD in Astrophysics...

Now...to the APS summary of this issue...btw...a serious question...what education do you have in Physics?...have you ever studied Heat Transfer?

________________

AI Overview

The American Physical Society (APS) and affiliated physicists have highlighted that Elon Musk's proposals for orbital AI data centers face a major physics and thermal dissipation bottleneck regarding how heat is removed in a vacuum. [1, 2]

Key Physics Challenges of Space Cooling

• Absence of Convection: On Earth, data centers rely heavily on air, water, conduction, and convection to move heat into the atmosphere. In the vacuum of space, air and liquid-to-air convection do not exist.[1, 2]
• Reliance on Thermal Radiation: Heat in space can only escape via thermal radiation(electromagnetic waves), which requires massive surface areas. [1, 2]
• Massive Radiator Footprints: Calculations referenced in scientific and astrophysical evaluations show that expelling the colossal heat loads generated by gigawatt-scale or multi-megawatt AI server racks requires enormous radiator panels (millions of square feet or acres of surface area), adding severe structural and launch-weight penalties. [1, 2, 3]
• The "Space is Cold" Misconception: While the ambient vacuum is nominally cold, thin orbital gases and direct solar radiation create intense thermal management hurdles. Traditional systems like the International Space Station's ammonia loops manage only a tiny fraction of the thermal output envisioned by commercial AI clusters and have historically suffered from mechanical and material wear (such as loop or coating degradation). [1, 2]
• Proposed Workarounds vs. Reality: Proponents and Musk have pointed to custom silicon operating at higher temperatures (e.g., higher Kelvin/Celsius thresholds) or specialized two-phase and high-temperature systems to shrink radiator footprints. However, independent physics breakdowns—including discussions featured at gatherings like the American Physical Society Summit—note that while orbital computing is not strictly forbidden by physical laws, the sheer scale of radiator mass and launch economics makes it vastly more complex than terrestrial alternatives