How are computers cooled in space?

[andyroo19]

This is a question I was pondering, an air cooler wouldn't work unless it was in the cabin or whatever its called. I'm talking about if a computer was in the vacuum of space, how would they cool it? My mind instantly went to water cooling, but that's not possible either because the radiator is cooled by air, so it would likely be better than air cooling but it would somewhat quickly reach thermal capacity. If anyone has an answer to this question it would be really cool to know. Thank you. 

[spartaman64]

probably big radiators that use photon radiation to cool down or they can reuse the heat to generate electricity etc

[mariushm]

Liquid cooling (with substances that handle very cold temperatures better than water)..

 

See Staying Cool on the ISS | Science Mission Directorate and Cooling System Keeps Space Station Safe, Productive | NASA

[Marbo]

Wasn't there an LTT video at a NASA museum? 

 

I recall the Apollo computers having liquid cooling. 

 

Edit:

Found it

 

 

[Glenwing]

4 hours ago, andyroo19 said:

This is a question I was pondering, an air cooler wouldn't work unless it was in the cabin or whatever its called. I'm talking about if a computer was in the vacuum of space, how would they cool it? My mind instantly went to water cooling, but that's not possible either because the radiator is cooled by air, so it would likely be better than air cooling but it would somewhat quickly reach thermal capacity. If anyone has an answer to this question it would be really cool to know. Thank you. 

Well I suppose the question is really, how does anything get cooled in space? Why do spacecraft get cold if you turn off the heater, shouldn't they just heat up infinitely if they are exposed to the sun, and they are surrounded by a huge insulating vacuum with no thermal contact with other objects?

 

And the answer is, objects in space are cooled entirely by radiation; they lose energy through EM radiation, the same way the heat from the sun gets to us through space actually (although it will all be pretty much infrared spectrum or below for man made objects like spacecraft). So if you turn off the heater in the spacecraft it will slowly lose energy, and therefore drop in temperature. You thermally couple the computer to the hull of the spacecraft and it will be cooled as well.

[akio123008]

I'd add that in a spaceship, there aren't just custom made computers built into the spaceship, conventional computers -that is, ones that are not built into the spaceship, such as laptops etc- are also used (at least on the ISS) 

 

Those lose their heat to the air inside the craft like a normal computer in a room on earth. And then of course the air in the spaceship is kept at a constant temperature by some climate control system that operates in the manner described by @Glenwing. 

[PeachGr]

Space is a cold place. Heat needs contact to transfer and all that is true, but when apolo 11 (or 13 not sure) suddenly got to the Shadow of the moon, it cooled down by 150-200°C. It's strange how temperature is working but the average space temperature is ~270

[Grabhanem]

Generally they'd probably be integrated into the temperature control for the entire spacecraft, but how cooling is accomplished for that is by radiative cooling: the heat is transferred to huge radiator panels that get rid of it via infrared light. This happens on the ground as well-- if you're at a large bonfire, you'll often find it feels much hotter on exposed skin because you're absorbing the infrared light from the fire-- but it's the only option for space travel.

[IkeaGnome]

Looks like the radiators like @Grabhanem said. 

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-47377707

Spoiler

The servers were placed in an airtight box with a radiator that is hooked up to the ISS water-cooling system. Hot air from the computers is guided through the radiator to cool down and than circulated back.

 

 

[Enderman]

Stuff is cooled by radiation.

[Guest]

At  -270c I don't think you'd need anything on a cpu at all. No water block, no air cooler.... just the IHS plate exposed to the chilly temps of 2.5 kelvin. 

 

The question might be more proper, how do I heat my PC to an operating temperature in space

[Grabhanem]

Just now, ShrimpBrime said:

At  -270c I don't think you'd need anything on a cpu at all. No water block, no air cooler.... just the IHS plate exposed to the chilly temps of 2.5 kelvin. 

 

The question might be more proper, how do I heat my PC to an operating temperature in space

The thing is, space isn't really -270C because there isn't really anything to have a temperature. A chip exposed directly to the vacuum of space would heat up the 3 atoms nearby to operating temperature and then melt.

[Master Disaster]

4 minutes ago, ShrimpBrime said:

At  -270c I don't think you'd need anything on a cpu at all. No water block, no air cooler.... just the IHS plate exposed to the chilly temps of 2.5 kelvin. 

 

The question might be more proper, how do I heat my PC to an operating temperature in space

The other question is where is my PC drawing power from in the vacuum of space.

[Guest]

Just now, Grabhanem said:

The thing is, space isn't really -270C because there isn't really anything to have a temperature. A chip exposed directly to the vacuum of space would heat up the 3 atoms nearby to operating temperature and then melt.

The PC probably wouldn't even start up in the first place.

 

Call that cold boot or cold bugged. Why the top of boards come with a slow mode and LN2 switch....

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Master Disaster said:

The other question is where is my PC drawing power from in the vacuum of space.

A very long extension cord to your house duh! Lol

[Orange1]

28 minutes ago, Firoj said:

I'm talking about if a computer was in the vacuum of space, how would they cool it?

It would either be to cold or to hot for the pc to even work. You'd need the pc to be in the cabin of a space craft, like the ISS space station, or be in an insulated box floating in space.

 

Power in space, well I know the rockets batteries are nuclear or plasma lithium.

 

 

[Master Disaster]

7 minutes ago, Grabhanem said:

The thing is, space isn't really -270C because there isn't really anything to have a temperature. A chip exposed directly to the vacuum of space would heat up the 3 atoms nearby to operating temperature and then melt.

Of course there is things in space. If there wasn't then stars and planets wouldn't form.

 

Even in deep space there's still some basic elements floating around, granted at miniscule proportions.

 

Oh and lets not forget the ever mysterious dark matter, we have no idea how that stuff works yet but its thought upto 75% of space could be made up of it.

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, Orange1 said:

It would either be to cold or to hot for the pc to even work. You'd need the pc to be in the cabin of a space craft, like the ISS space station, or be in an insulated box floating in space.

 

Power in space, well I know the rockets batteries are nuclear or plasma lithium.

 

 

Right. The sunny side of the space station can get over 200 degree. And the shaded side negative 200 degree.

 

Let's assume in the the shaded side for all intensive purposes. 

[Orange1]

-200F would crack something for sure, probably the laptops screen.

[NicoV]

58 minutes ago, Firoj said:

 

Infrared and microwave radiation. Just like how a lightbulb emits visible light (photons) at a few hundred degrees, the surface of a satellite will emit photons with less energy at a lower temperature. While it is true that "space", or rather the dust in space, is very, very cold, there's so little of it that it can be completely ignored, at least for heat transfer. The computers in spacecraft are also purpose built, which makes them very power efficient.

 

Interestingly, the main problem for spacecraft isn't cooling off, it's staying warm. Most of them have a large enough surface area that they dissipate more energy than they output through normal operation. The power source on New Horizons (A tiny piece of plutonium) outputs far more power than the spacecraft's electronics need to run, the extra power is used to keep it warm enough for those electronics to not "freeze" to death.

[LWM723]

What about the electronics in sattellites where there is no air?

[Fatih19]

2 minutes ago, LWM723 said:

What about the electronics in sattellites where there is no air?

Radiation by infrared light.

[Slayerking92]

They do talk about it in this video.

 

 

[Morrie Sells Wigs]

They stick them out the window.

[whm1974]

Well the Computers they put on Spacecraft are nowhere as powerful as Modern PCs. So less Heat produced to begin with.