Orbital data center power and radiator sizing
IT power to solar array area and side, radiator area from net flux, areal masses and kg per kW.
SIDUS educational calculator. Category utilities. Tags: mission-design, power, satellite, thermal, utilities. Pure SI. Not flight software.
Formula
A_pv = P/(S η f) A_rad = P/q_net
Orbital data center power and radiator sizing
Primary sources
- Why we should train AI in space (white paper) (Lumen Orbit / Starcloud: Feilden, Oltean, Johnston (September 2024)): Worked radiator example (ε 0.92, α 0.09, F 0.25, 20 °C), 5 GW / 4 km × 4 km array, dawn-dusk SSO rationale, shield scaling. SIDUS reimplements the physics independently and applies ε to the Earth-IR term by default. No affiliation.
- Orbital Data Centers: Spacecraft Constraints and Economic Viability (S. G. Turyshev, arXiv:2604.27197 (2026)): Lumped radiator closure A = P / (ε η σ T⁴ − q_env), environmental load decomposition, 1 MW base case (2.50e3 m², 29.4 kg/kW).
- Space Mission Engineering: The New SMAD (Wertz, Everett, Puschell (eds.)): Mission engineering handbook: RF links, constellations, and ops framing.
- SIDUS pure-SI implementation (sidus.tools): Local pure-function implementations in src/lib/physics (educational, independent reimplementation).
How do AI agents use this tool?
Read /llms.txt or call https://sidus.tools/api/mcp. Open the interactive page for live SI inputs.