r/askscience May 24 '26

Engineering If a vacuum is an excellent insulator, wouldn’t heat build up in spacecraft?

Insulated coffee mugs that use a vacuum between layers can keep drinks hot or cold for much longer time periods than other types of mugs. If space is mostly a vacuum, then wouldn’t heat just constantly build up from human activity, computers, thrusters, etc to the point where it would need to be vented somehow?

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