On Oct. 1, Google plans to hitch a ride on a SpaceX Transporter 18 rideshare flight, entrusting the mission with a test satellite it hopes will prove durable enough to start doing some light AI work while orbiting in space.
This isn’t exactly putting a data center in space — a much-hyped concept that AI entrepreneurs like Elon Musk have been touting over the last year —but it’s not not doing that. The satellite, which The New York Times reports is called “MWP” and which it describes as about the size of a refrigerator, won’t be running any huge medical research studies or beaming back streaming data. It will be low-powered, running off solar power, and designed just to test the concept of AI computation in space. Google is running the test in partnership with the satellite imaging company Planet and as part of Google’s Project Suncatcher initiative, which was announced late last year.
In a blog post that includes videos showing some of the preparation Google’s research teams have done — such as making sure that TPUs (a type of AI chip) can withstand the vibration of launching into space — the company characterizes this test as a small early step in a long-term moonshot: “exploring whether space could one day host scalable machine learning infrastructure.”
In a post on X, Google CEO asked, “Can our TPUs survive and operate in space? Well, we’re going to find out.”
Finding energy for AI in space
Google explained in the post that one reason it’s going to try crunching AI data in space involves energy. Satellites can access eight times more solar power than earthbound structures, providing a potentially huge energy resource for space data centers, which could bypass the backlash facing data centers across the country.
“Eventually,” writes Travis Beals, Google’s senior director for Paradigms of Intelligence, “it could be possible to link together multiple constellations of satellites, allowing them to manage larger AI workloads while in orbit.”
But that could be easier said than done. Companies like Google, SpaceXAI and Nvidia are all looking to deploy their AI technology beyond the Earth’s surface, but face some basic physical challenges: Any data center satellites would need to be built to withstand radiation, extreme temperatures and the physical stress of getting there. They’d also need to avoid dangers from an increasingly crowded orbital sky filled with other satellites and debris.
Google seems to be moving fast, with plans to continue advancing Project Suncatcher with some tangible results in the next few years; that’s assuming its October test is successful, and things keep moving forward. One of its next milestone goals, for 2027, would be to start testing high-bandwidth laser links after launching two more AI satellites with Planet. Communicating with lasers, Beals said in his Google post, is a lot harder than it sounds. “Maintaining the necessary connection requires extraordinary precision, similar to hitting a coin-size target from miles away while both points are in motion,” he said.
A data center backlash solution?
One reason space data centers sound so attractive to tech companies is a massive public backlash against building new data centers or completing ones that are in the process of being built. A pro-data center PR campaign backed by tech giants may not be enough to counter negative sentiment and protests aimed at data centers that help enable data-hungry AI technology.
Protests have sprung up across the country over energy and water use, pollution and the potential physical effects on those who live near data centers, among other issues. It could also be a point of voter discontent heading into this year’s midterm elections.
Putting data centers in space, presumably, could sidestep the issue of communities not wanting data centers nearby. But it will be costly, and there’s no guarantee that the business model of data centers in space will pay off enough for tech companies to make it viable, said Mahdi Eslamimehr, executive vice president at Quandary Peak Research.
“Proving that chips work in orbit is not proving a business model,” Eslamimehr said, and it won’t lower anyone’s electricity or water bills anytime soon or replace current data center projects, even if the business of data in space proves workable. “I welcome the experiments, but I expect everyday AI services to remain overwhelmingly dependent on terrestrial facilities in 2027 and 2028,” he said.
“A promise about 2035 does not pay an electricity bill in 2026,” he said.
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