Is it possible to create a dataheaven in the heavens?

[TiagoTiago]

Would it be possible create a constellation of satellites hosting webservers with some sort of wireless connection to the rest of the Internet, assembled and launched in international waters, so that you could host anything and be immune to any law enforcement entity (short of military action against the satellites)?

[Jaime Frontero]

Would it be possible create a constellation of satellites hosting webservers with some sort of wireless connection to the rest of the Internet, assembled and launched in international waters, so that you could host anything and be immune to any law enforcement entity (short of military action against the satellites)?

yes.  but it would be very expensive.

i seem to recall, in fact, that there has recently been an in-orbit commsat offered for sale.

but they're delicate.  and lasers are powerful, these days.

it would be much cheaper of course to buy a slice of a satellite - that comes up for sale quite often.  but centralized, government control...

all in all, p2p is better - or the darknet.

[error]

This sounds eerily similar to a Neal Stephenson book I once read.

[gigitrix]

The latency might be a problem for bitcoin mining though

[cuddlefish]

Would it be possible create a constellation of satellites hosting webservers with some sort of wireless connection to the rest of the Internet, assembled and launched in international waters, so that you could host anything and be immune to any law enforcement entity (short of military action against the satellites)?

You'd save on cooling!

[Jaime Frontero]

Would it be possible create a constellation of satellites hosting webservers with some sort of wireless connection to the rest of the Internet, assembled and launched in international waters, so that you could host anything and be immune to any law enforcement entity (short of military action against the satellites)?

You'd save on cooling!

umm... no.

cooling is very expensive in the vacuum of orbit.  no heat transfer to passing air - only (expensive - that is, when considering launch costs, heavy) radiative cooling works.  and the radiative heating from the sun is quite high.

[Dobrodav]

Satelits are to vulnerable to attacks. 3 kg of trash dispersed in satelit orbit are enough to bring him down.

[Jaime Frontero]

Satelits are to vulnerable to attacks. 3 kg of trash dispersed in satelit orbit are enough to bring him down.

i have maintained for thirty years - and still believe - that the first, private, space billionaire will be the person who figures out how to cost-effectively clear orbit of all the garbage and debris.

[TiagoTiago]

How hard it is to "land" a satellite into a decommissioned satellite to pass off as space debri?