Google's Project Suncatcher is testing whether AI chips can live in orbit
Google says an upcoming prototype satellite will test how its TPUs survive launch forces, radiation, heat, and the weird physics of cooling hardware in space.
What happened
Google says Project Suncatcher is scheduled for its first in-orbit test, launching a prototype satellite to evaluate how Google Tensor Processing Units perform in space.
The company describes Suncatcher as a long-term research moonshot: future constellations could use near-constant sunlight in low Earth orbit and link satellites together to handle machine-learning workloads.
The hard parts
Google says the mission will test whether TPUs can survive rocket vibration, acceleration, radiation, and thermal extremes. The team has already run vibration tests and proton-beam radiation tests, and says initial results show Trillium TPUs can survive a total ionizing dose above what they would receive in a five-year space mission.
Cooling is another problem. There is no airflow in a vacuum, so Google is testing heat pipes and radiators. Future satellite clusters would also need laser links precise enough to maintain very high bandwidth over short distances while both satellites move.
Quick takeaways
- The first Project Suncatcher in-orbit test is tied to SpaceX's upcoming Transporter-18 rideshare mission with Planet.
- Google says low Earth orbit satellites can access up to eight times more solar power than Earth-based systems.
- A 2027 milestone is expected to test laser communication between two satellites.