Google’s first step toward putting data centers in space is officially underway. On October 1, at approximately 2:32 P.M. EDT, a SpaceX rocket launched an experimental satellite carrying artificial intelligence chips into low-Earth orbit.
The satellite, Project Suncatcher, is loaded with Google’s Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), chips that the company uses to train and run its AI models. The mission’s goal is to evaluate how the chips fare during the launch, as well as in the hostile space environment.
The trial TPUs have already been put through their paces on land, with some of the chips subjected to simulated solar radiation and cosmic rays at a proton beam facility at University of California, Davis. In a blog post, Google said that the chips held up “remarkably well” and that the data indicate they could handle more ionizing radiation than what they could be expected to encounter over five years in space.
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Along with the chips, Project Suncatcher will also test a new cooling system. Because there is no airflow in space, Google’s engineers developed a novel method of dispersing the intense heat generated by TPUs as they perform AI-related functions.
Orbital data centers are many AI companies’ answer to the increasingly resource-heavy terrestrial infrastructure required to power AI models—not to mention the fact that ground-based data centers are increasingly politically unpopular. At the same time, these satellite data centers could feasibly harness the nearly unlimited, clean solar energy that an orbital location affords. Aside from Google, OpenAI and xAI are also pushing this idea as a means to solve their Earth-bound problems.
Even so, experts caution that there are numerous engineering and cost efficiency challenges that need to be addressed before these plans could be realized. Astronomers have also criticized the plans, saying orbital data centers could contribute to the growing problem of light pollution that’s making observing the night sky increasingly difficult.
Google plans to launch two experimental satellites in 2027 to help test how its potential data centers might communicate with one another via lasers.
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