Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the company will launch a prototype satellite to test AI hardware in space in 2027 that will have enough computing power to answer simple A.I. queries from space an ambitious effort from Google called Project Suncatcher, which aims to put artificial intelligence data centers into space and to harness the sun’s energy to power them. On Oct. 1, the satellite from the San Francisco lab — which Google has named MVP — is set to become the first step toward that goal by a major tech company. It will be loaded onto a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at the Vandenberg Space Force Base near Santa Barbara, Calif., and then launched into orbit.
Google provided The New York Times with the first inside look at the project, which seemed like a science-fiction dream just a year ago. The satellite will answer simple A.I. queries and operate for a year, though it is set to circle Earth for up to six years. Eventually, it is expected to succumb to Earth’s gravitational pull and burn up as it descends through the atmosphere.
Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Sam Altman and others have pledged support for orbital data centers, but the idea faces many challenges, including withstanding radiation in space and the costs of getting machines beyond the atmosphere. Yet as data centers grapple with terrestrial opposition and physical limits, having computing facilities float above Earth has become increasingly attractive.
Google is already looking ahead. Next year, it plans to launch a pair of satellites. It also has designs for fleets of more than 80 satellites that will fly in close formation and communicate with one another as they process A.I. queries. And Google is meeting with designers to potentially build a custom satellite the length of a soccer field.
