Project Suncatche: How Google Plans To Take AI Data Center Race To Space

Alphabet's Google is working on an idea of putting solar-powered AI data centres in space. In a major step towards making the concept a reality, the tech giant will launch its first orbital test next week by sending a prototype satellite under Project Suncatcher. 

The multi-million-dollar research will explore whether space could potentially host large-scale AI computing infrastructure. Billionaires like Elon Musk and Sam Altman, among others, have already thrown their support behind these orbital data centres, aiming to harness near-continuous sunlight to power energy-intensive AI computing and sidestep terrestrial constraints on electricity supplies.

However, the idea faces several challenges, including whether the infrastructure could withstand radiation in space or if the costs of getting machines beyond the atmosphere are worth the effort. 

About the Mission

The new mission, scheduled to fly on SpaceX's upcoming Transporter-18 rideshare launch in partnership with satellite company Planet Labs, will assess how Google's AI hardware withstands launch forces, radiation and extreme temperatures in low Earth orbit.

After the launch, it will send a prototype satellite carrying Google Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) into low Earth orbit to assess if the AI chips can operate reliably in space.

Space radiation can disrupt or degrade electronics, including by causing data errors known as bit flips.

Google said it tested its TPUs while running AI workloads in a facility at the University of California, Davis, but that orbital testing was needed to understand how the hardware performs in the real environment.

The company will also evaluate its design to cool the power-intensive chips in the vacuum of space, where conventional airflow cooling is impossible, by combining heat pipes with radiators.

Path To Reality

With data centres grappling with terrestrial opposition and physical limits, the idea of having computing facilities float above Earth has become increasingly attractive. But experts have said that the concept remains years from being commercially viable given high launch costs, engineering constraints and satellite production bottlenecks.

The first Suncatcher mission is designed to gather in-orbit data and identify potential failure points, rather than demonstrate an operational orbital data centre, Google said.

Google plans to launch two more satellites in 2027 to test the high-bandwidth laser links needed to connect future computing clusters.