Google has been teasing Project Suncatcher, its plan to put AI data centers in space, for almost a year. Now, the idea is finally leaving the drawing board. According to The New York Times, which Google invited behind the scenes before anyone else, the company will launch its first test satellite, called MVP, on October 1 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
Why does Google want to put data centers in space?
AI is power-hungry, and building more data centers on the ground is getting harder as they face pushback and physical constraints. Google says solar panels placed in the right orbit can produce up to eight times more energy than they would on Earth, and they get sunlight almost around the clock.
MVP is roughly as big as a refrigerator and houses four of Google’s TPU chips, giving it about as much computing muscle as one data center server. Its solar panels generate around one kilowatt of power, which is about what a hair dryer draws.
The satellite will handle simple AI queries for a year and could stay in orbit for as long as six years before it burns up on reentry. Also, Google isn’t the only one looking to the skies, though. Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, along with several other companies, have proposed massive satellite constellations that would work as data centers in orbit.
How do you keep AI chips cool in space?
This turned out to be Google’s biggest headache. Traditional cooling fans are useless in space, so Google built a layered system that pulls heat away from the chips through a putty-like material, aluminum, and copper before a radiator panel releases it into space.
Even with all that, the chips can only work for about 15 minutes at a time before they need to power down and chill. Radiation was another concern, but the chips handled Google’s radiation tests well, and a simple restart usually fixed any glitches.
When will this actually matter?
Don’t hold your breath. Google’s James Manyika told the Times that he doesn’t expect anything “usefully operational in the next few years,” and he compared the project to Google’s long journey with self-driving cars.
Google still has big plans, including two more satellites next year and fleets of over 80 satellites working together. If it all works, you might not even realize your next Gemini answer came from orbit.
