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Comment by s1artibartfast | Hacker News Reader

The point is not to run longer than 15 min. They knew this before even launching it.

Part of development is prototyping and testing. This is part of a process to learn and inform the design of later versions.

We would have very little science or technology if we did not do such tests.

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Did they actually have to launch the thing to do that testing? I think a much simpler and more direct explanation is that it is simply a deceptive marketing stunt. "Hey look we're solving the power problem, don't worry we'll be able to build all these megawatts of compute we promised" when in reality it will never happen and they had no intention of even trying. It's a short term con to try to calm fears in the market that the promises exceed their capabilities.

That is a pretty cynical take. I think it is likely that a lunch would be appropriate for a legitimate development process. They did testing and vacuum and testing with high energy particles on Earth. The cost isn't great to validate those models with the real thing.

I think most people are overestimating the cost and difficulty of compute in space, and underestimating the advantages

I only have cynical takes these days. Tech has been completely taken over by charlatans, scam artists, grifters, and snake oil salesmen. I have zero tolerance for suspending disbelief. They can force me to believe with data, or they're deliberately lying. No middle ground.

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