"With his newfound focus on the Moon, Elon musk is making some wild new plans. In an xAI meeting with employees, Musk said the company needed to build an AI satellite factory on the moon with a gigantic catapult to launch them into space, according to audio heard by The New York Times."
"All of that would be part of the billionaire's plans to create a massive orbiting AI "data center" that uses satellites powered by the sun and kept cool by the vacuum of space (a bad plan, some experts say). Any satellites launched from the Moon would presumably orbit the Moon as well, though Musk didn't provide any additional details."
"Such a catapult would certainly need to be powerful - though the Moon has only one-sixth the gravity of Earth, the minimum escape velocity required for orbit is still around 3,800 MPH or five times the speed of sound. That's currently possible with electromagnetic railguns that launch projectiles at speeds up to Mach 8.8, though any satellite launched by such a device would need to withstand acceleration forces around 10,000 g or more."
An AI satellite factory on the Moon would use a gigantic catapult to launch satellites into space. The concept envisions a massive orbiting AI data center powered by solar energy and passively cooled by the vacuum of space. Lunar launches would benefit from weaker lunar gravity but still require a minimum escape velocity around 3,800 MPH. Electromagnetic railguns can reach sufficient speeds, but satellites launched this way would face acceleration forces on the order of 10,000 g. Realizing the concept would require orbital operations, lunar landings, construction of a colony and factory, and many manned and unmanned expeditions.
Read at Engadget
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