• postscarce@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    19 hours ago

    They would use radiator panels which automatically swivel so they’re edge-on to the sun.

    I think the bigger problems are;

    1. The costs (monetary and environmental) of launching so many new satellites,
    2. Large-scale computing technology is untested in that kind of environment and will likely encounter a number of issues and unforeseen problems (so more launches until they get it right),
    3. Additional radiation will increase errors, so they will require a more robust design with more redundancy than Earth-based systems,
    4. If they’re in a low orbit similar to Starlink satellites (which have an expected lifetime of 5 to 7 years) they will need to be constantly replaced.