[Beowulf] Why We Need a Supercomputer on the Moon

[Robert G. Brown]

On Wed, 3 Oct 2012, Prentice Bisbal wrote:

>
> On 10/02/2012 11:56 AM, Eugen Leitl wrote:
>>
>> Should we build a supercomputer on the moon?
>>
>
> And you all laugh at me every time I bring up Iceland.

As long as we name it "Michael" I'm down with it.  You can balance the
fact that the moon is one giant vacuum thermos against the fact that at
the poles it is one giant vacuum thermos exposed to a 3K blackbody sky
and with an average ground temperature hot and cold side that is far
below freezing a few centimeters in and beyond. Lots of solar power at
the higher latitudes near the poles, easy to pipe along the surface on
short towers given no atmosphere to arc through.

The only thing is -- it would really suck as an interactive system given
the multiple light-second lag.  Not a good place to put your World of
Warcraft game server...

Oh, and did I mention that fact that I get to be its sysadmin (and hence
get free transport to and from and live on the moon)?  No?

    rgb

>
> --
> Prentice
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Robert G. Brown	                       http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/
Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305
Durham, N.C. 27708-0305
Phone: 1-919-660-2567  Fax: 919-660-2525     email:rgb at phy.duke.edu