Orbital Data Centers: Why the Hype Outpaces Reality

# Summary Despite growing enthusiasm for space-based data centers, significant technical and economic challenges make them impractical in the near term, as the mathematical and physical constraints don't support the viability of orbital computing infrastructure. The hype surrounding space-based computation has outpaced realistic assessments of cooling, power supply, latency, and cost barriers that would need to be overcome for such systems to be competitive with terrestrial data centers.