When Google is using the term “moonshot” to describe an idea, it is usually some outlandish goal. In this situation, it is not a figure of speech. Google has launched Project Suncatcher — a bold plan to build solar-powered AI data centers in space that could transform where and how machine learning evolves.
What is Project Suncatcher?
Project Suncatcher is essentially a bold attempt by Google to move the AI infrastructure from the confines of the planet Earth. This will be a network of satellites, equipped with Tensor Processing Units, the company’s proprietary AI chips, and solar panels to generate electricity. The satellites will be placed into “sun-synchronous” orbit to keep them illuminated for virtually all of the day and to communicate with each other using laser-based optical links to transfer data at terabit speeds.
In theory, this would be a data center in orbit that is continuously powered by solar power, and with none of the cooling and electrical grid limitations experienced on Earth. https://blog.google/technology/research/google-project-suncatcher/
Why Send Artificial Intelligence into Space?
The reasons are both environmental and practical. Global workloads in Artificial Intelligence (AI) have resulted in power being consumed by data centers more than what an entire country uses. According to Google’s engineers, space is a virtually infinite clean energy source as it reduces energy losses. Space has no day or night, and solar panels in orbit can generate up to eight times more power than those placed on Earth.
By moving compute power into orbit, Google hopes to reduce pressures on local power grids, reduce emissions and create a sustainable path of growth for AI. The company has said its estimates indicate that when the cost of a launch is below US$200 per kilogram, operating a service in orbit could be at price parity with ground-based compute.
How Would It Work?
Each satellite in this respective constellation would accommodate high-performance TPUs running complex distributed artificial intelligence workloads; these TPUs on the satellites would interconnect via free-space optical communication, beaming bits of data between satellites free airtime utilizing light instead of fiber cables. A recent test in Google labs achieved 800 gigabits per second bidirectionally, indicating efficiency would be possible at controlled distances.
Google also announced it would deploy two prototype satellites in partnership with Planet Labs by 2027 to evaluate this hardware in orbit.
“Space may be the best location to scale AI compute in the future,” said Travis Beals, Senior Director, Paradigms of Intelligence at Google. “We’re working backwards from that vision to understand what the possibilities are today.”
Engineering challenges
Naturally, it is no small feat to convert this science fiction into reality. Engineers need to achieve tight satellite formations using ultra-precise orbital mechanics in low Earth orbit to prevent them from drifting or colliding. Google’s simulation predicted an 81-satellite cluster could maintain a formation distance of one kilometer-a remarkable feat of engineering if it can actually happen.
And then there is radiation, space is a very hostile environment for microelectronics. Google operated its Trillium TPU v6e in a 67 MeV proton beam that survived radiation equivalent to five years in orbit. For now, the long-term reliability issues, thermal issues, and space debris mitigation still remain.
Consequences Beyond the Cloud Should Project Suncatcher work, it could very soon change how the world thinks about building and managing the infrastructures of AI and data sovereignty.
If computation is happening off the national jurisdiction, who governs orbital AI? In space, is it possible to actualize different forms of geopolitics of control for data management? Engineers must maintain tight satellite formations using ultra-precise orbital mechanics in low Earth orbit to prevent drifting or collisions But it has huge implications, for AI, as well as clean energy, sustainability, and technology independence. Once the demand for energy and compute exceeds the Earth’s tolerated limits, Google’s peculiar leap into space signals the next stage of the evolutionary arc we are in now. The company that redefined the term “cloud” may be looking well beyond that framework-at least hopefully.
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