Google's Next Moonshot Is Putting TPUs In Space With 'Project Suncatcher' (9to5google.com)
- Reference: 0179966308
- News link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/11/04/2236207/googles-next-moonshot-is-putting-tpus-in-space-with-project-suncatcher
- Source link: https://9to5google.com/2025/11/04/google-project-suncatcher/
> These satellites would connect via free-space optical links, with large-scale ML workloads "distributing tasks across numerous accelerators with high-bandwidth, low-latency connections." To match data centers on Earth, the connection between satellites would have to be tens of terabits per second, and they'd have to fly in "very close formation (kilometers or less)."
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> Google has already conducted radiation testing on TPUs (Trillium, v6e), with "promising" results: "While the High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) subsystems were the most sensitive component, they only began showing irregularities after a cumulative dose of 2 krad(Si) -- nearly three times the expected (shielded) five year mission dose of 750 rad(Si). No hard failures were attributable to TID up to the maximum tested dose of 15 krad(Si) on a single chip, indicating that Trillium TPUs are surprisingly radiation-hard for space applications."
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> Finally, Google believes that launch costs will "fall to less than $200/kg by the mid-2030s." At that point, the "cost of launching and operating a space-based data center could become roughly comparable to the reported energy costs of an equivalent terrestrial data center on a per-kilowatt/year basis."
[1] https://research.google/blog/exploring-a-space-based-scalable-ai-infrastructure-system-design/
[2] https://9to5google.com/2025/11/04/google-project-suncatcher/
What if... (Score:3)
What if we just got all the AI tech bros and put them on these rockets so they can live in space in harmony with their perfect AI computer farms.
Re: (Score:2)
Right?
I've been saying this all along - why wait? They aren't getting any younger. Elon and Petey should gather up their most trusted minions and jet right off, the sooner the better.
Stop teasing, just fucking go Galt already. I promise to pretend to miss you if it'll help.
Heat ? (Score:4, Interesting)
How are they planning to dissipate the heat from all this computing? It's a significant problem in space especially if your orbit is in the sun all the time.
Re: (Score:2)
They will conveniently find a way to convert the heat into kinetic energy to control its orbit, and recycle it back into electricity to run the hardware and lasers.
Oh yeah, there WILL be lasers.
Kind of like what they should have been doing with the waste heat from all of those terrestrial server farms; converting it to kinetic or electrical energy.
Re: (Score:3)
> They will conveniently find a way to convert the heat into kinetic energy to control its orbit, and recycle it back into electricity to run the hardware and lasers.
The laws of thermodynamics guarantee that you must have waste heat if you are producing useful work. You can't "recycle" waste heat into useful energy (if you could, it wouldn't be waste heat), except by finding a colder place to reject it to.
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So you're saying that there is no way to take the heat and run it through some sort of zero gravity steam turbine that converts the heat into electricity that can then be used by the system?
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> So you're saying that there is no way to take the heat and run it through some sort of zero gravity steam turbine that converts the heat into electricity that can then be used by the system?
That would be what is called a "bottoming cycle"-- you take the waste heat and use it. But you still have to reject the waste heat, and you have to reject it at a colder temperature than the (hot side) temperature of the bottoming cycle.
So, for example, if your system is capable of rejecting waste heat at say 350 Kelvin, you could run your electronics at 400 Kelvin. Now if you reject your waste heat at 350 Kelvin, you can use the fifty-degree temperature difference to generate power.
That's the trade off: if
Re: (Score:2)
So the Seebeck effect can't be used recursively while the orbital passes through the shadow of the Earth?
Re: Heat ? (Score:2)
Yeah, that's what I thought.. but I can't recall the explanation ... you only have radiative cooling, so then you need huge surface area? Something like that ?
Re: (Score:2)
With water piped through the internet tubes.
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> How are they planning to dissipate the heat from all this computing?
They will supply each satellite with an ice pack to dump waste heat into. SpaceX will launch regular resupply missions with fresh ice, as necessary.
Financially, this does not make sense (Score:4, Insightful)
Putting stuff into orbit, and preparing stuff for working well under the conditions there (and during the travel up there) is still way too expensive to justify running computers in orbit just for the sunlight.
But of course, if I was an AI that wanted to remove itself from the possibility of being cut off from power by some pesky humans, I would certainly recommend to the C-level to build me a residence in orbit, far out of reach of some possibly revolting mob.
the final frontier (Score:4, Insightful)
It seems we are getting into the "x, but in space" era of "innovation".
Sure solar panels are more efficient in space, but all of the energy captured by them also has to be gotten rid of as heat after it's done it's job. AI is some of the biggest power consumer tech we have, and space is the most difficult place to cool something in. Down here on Earth, basically all of our cooling works by using either the atmosphere or a body of water as a heatsink. In space, all you have is radiation cooling, which really is the short straw, and a big limiting factor in most endeavours there.
Re: (Score:2)
Recycle the heat into power for the lasers, send that energy out as the lasers that connect the network. The energy lost in transmission helps to reduce heat.
There is also storing up all of that heat energy by converting it into electrical or kinetic energy that can be released very quickly through a 'non-communication' laser. I'm sure somebody's going to want to do some experimentation with that idea.
Can't reject waste heat with a laser (Score:4, Informative)
> Recycle the heat into power for the lasers,
You can't power a laser from waste heat. That violates the second law of thermodynamics.
A quick and non-technical explanation is that photons from lasers are coherent, that is, they have zero entropy (according to Boltzmann's law). Therefore, the entropy of the waste heat can't be carried away by the laser light.
(Yes I know that this means that the premise of Sundiver doesn't work.)
Re: (Score:2)
Is there no way to concentrate the potential energy of the waste heat into capacitors or batteries that can then be used to power an electron-throwing drive or laser in bursts?
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> Is there no way to concentrate the potential energy of the waste heat into capacitors or batteries that can then be used to power an electron-throwing drive or laser in bursts?
Only if you can reject waste heat somewhere. Entropy can't decrease.
sounds great for error rates (Score:2)
Let's run un-auditable algorithms on hardware subjected to periods of intense radiation.
lossy multiplication (Score:2)
In Space!
yikes (Score:1)
Do you want Skynet? 'Cause that's how you get Skynet.
Re: yikes (Score:1)
Yes this is obviously just dual-use tech for Golden Dome. Engineers need to ask questions when plans make no economic sense.
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They are saying it does make economic sense.
From the summary: Google believes that launch costs will "fall to less than $200/kg by the mid-2030s." At that point, the "cost of launching and operating a space-based data center could become roughly comparable to the reported energy costs of an equivalent terrestrial data center on a per-kilowatt/year basis."
If that's true then space based AI farms are inevitable.
Re: (Score:2)
Sure, you've got cheap power then, but how the frack are they planning on cooling the TPUs? Heat disposal is a real issue for spacecraft, the first thing the Space Shuttle would do is open the bay doors to expose the radiators to space so the habitat area didn't overheat.