Google plans first test of AI chips in space under Project Suncatcher

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 ​LEO.After the launch, it will send a prototype satellite carrying Google Tensor Processing Units 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. Read More:Anthropic mulls releasing new AI model. 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. 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 center, Google said. It aims ​to launch two satellites in 2027 to test the high-bandwidth laser links needed to connect ​future computing clusters.