Google announced a new research project that aims to launch AI chips into space via solar-powered satellites called Project Suncatcher. The new ‘moonshot’ project was jumpstarted because Google believed that space could be the best place to scale AI compute. 

CEO Sundar Pichai shared the news on X saying, “Inspired by our history of moonshots, from quantum computing to autonomous driving, Project Suncatcher is exploring how we could one day build scalable ML compute systems in space, harnessing more of the sun’s power (which emits more power than 100 trillion times humanity’s total electricity production). Like any moonshot, it’s going to require us to solve a lot of complex engineering challenges.”

The idea has come out as the world deals with the growing environmental impact in terms of water and electricity from the construction of AI data centers.

A blog posted by Google has described their vision involving scalable data centers with its Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) orbiting on solar-powered satellites. The company said that the solar panels on these satellites could generate enough electricity to make them eight times more powerful than the ones on earth. 

However, there are multiple technical challenges that could take years to solve. Satellites have to be able to communicate well with each other at high-speed in space while being at a much closer than they are currently. 

This will require wireless solutions that can operate at tens of terabits per second. Google said that while early testing on earth has shown bidirectional speeds up to 1.6 Tbps, they believe this can be scaled. 

Pichai also added that a lot of testing would be required to be done around issues like “thermal management and on-orbit system reliability.” 

The company has tested its Trillium TPUs to check if they can withstand damage from radiation and stated that they can survive “a total ionizing dose equivalent to a 5 year mission life without permanent failures.”

Google plans to launch a couple of prototype satellites by 2027 in partnership with the company Planet.