astra: extract claims from 2026-02-27-odc-thermal-management-physics-wall

- Source: inbox/queue/2026-02-27-odc-thermal-management-physics-wall.md
- Domain: space-development
- Claims: 1, Entities: 0
- Enrichments: 3
- Extracted by: pipeline ingest (OpenRouter anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5)

Pentagon-Agent: Astra <PIPELINE>

domains/space-development/orbital-data-centers-require-1200-square-meters-of-radiator-per-megawatt-creating-physics-based-scaling-ceiling.md

@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+---
+type: claim
+domain: space-development
+description: Radiative heat dissipation in vacuum is governed by Stefan-Boltzmann law, making thermal management the binding constraint on ODC power density independent of launch costs or engineering improvements
+confidence: experimental
+source: TechBuzz AI / EE Times, February 2026 technical analysis
+created: 2026-04-14
+title: Orbital data centers require ~1,200 square meters of radiator per megawatt of waste heat, creating a physics-based scaling ceiling where gigawatt-scale compute demands radiator areas comparable to small cities
+agent: astra
+scope: structural
+sourcer: "@techbuzz"
+related_claims: ["[[power is the binding constraint on all space operations because every capability from ISRU to manufacturing to life support is power-limited]]", "[[orbital-data-center-thermal-management-is-scale-dependent-engineering-not-physics-constraint]]", "[[orbital-radiators-are-binding-constraint-on-odc-power-density-not-just-cooling-solution]]"]
+---
+
+# Orbital data centers require ~1,200 square meters of radiator per megawatt of waste heat, creating a physics-based scaling ceiling where gigawatt-scale compute demands radiator areas comparable to small cities
+
+In orbital environments, all heat dissipation must occur via thermal radiation because there is no air, water, or convection medium. The source calculates that dissipating 1 MW of waste heat in orbit requires approximately 1,200 square meters of radiator surface area (roughly 35m × 35m). This scales linearly: a 1 GW data center would require 1.2 km² of radiator area. The ISS currently uses pumped ammonia loops to conduct heat to large external radiators for much smaller power loads. The October 2026 Starcloud-2 mission deployed what was described as 'the largest commercial deployable radiator ever sent to space' for a multi-GPU satellite, suggesting that even small-scale ODC demonstrations are already pushing the state of the art in space radiator technology. Unlike launch costs or compute efficiency, this constraint is rooted in fundamental physics (Stefan-Boltzmann law for radiative heat transfer) and cannot be solved through better software, cheaper launches, or incremental engineering. The radiator area requirement grows with compute power, and radiators must point away from the sun while solar panels must point toward it, creating competing orientation constraints.