Daily Junction.mobi portal<p>Orbital data centres would have a huge water footprint too. To catch toxic dust and protect their concrete launch pad from heat damage, a typical spaceport uses a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3ot8Gzt7O0">deluge system</a> releasing around 2 million litres of water with every launch. SpaceX has <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/spacex-polluted-waters-texas-regulators-rcna166283">repeatedly broken</a> environmental laws with its deluge system, allowing contaminated run-off from Starship launches to enter protected waters off the coast of Texas.</p>
<p>Some suggest these sci-fi schemes are designed to prop up SpaceX’s <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/09a62ed4-16af-433c-adb7-c877d1975388?syn-25a6b1a6=1">teetering stock price</a>, rather than humanity’s computing needs. Others see orbital data centres as just one of <a href="https://www.techradar.com/pro/samsung-says-it-will-launch-a-floating-data-center-by-2028-as-it-looks-to-jump-on-a-major-new-opportunity">many ambitious visions</a> to tackle the environmental costs of AI. Either way, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214629626001969#bb0145">my research suggests</a> this quest to off-world the industry’s headaches will have profound implications that are not well understood.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/287310/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important" referrerpolicy="no-referrer-when-downgrade" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p>
<p><span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/peter-howson-410183">Peter Howson</a>, Assistant Professor - Geography and Development, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/northumbria-university-newcastle-821">Northumbria University, Newcastle</a></em></span></p>
<p>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-ais-environmental-footprint-wont-disappear-into-orbit-287310">original article</a>.</p> </div>