(TNS) — Google will launch a prototype satellite to evaluate how its artificial intelligence (AI) chips perform in space, the company said on Thursday.
"In low Earth orbit, satellites can access near-constant sunlight, generating up to eight times more solar power than on Earth," Google said in a blog post.
"Eventually, it could be possible to link together multiple constellations of satellites, allowing them to manage larger AI workloads while in orbit."
Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) will be loaded onto a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket next week to test how they handle the "physical stress of spaceflight and the radiation and thermal extremes of space," Google said.
"Some things can only be tested in space ... This first launch is about seeing what works, identifying points of failure, and applying those findings to future missions."
Cooling orbital data centres and ensuring the satellites can communicate at very high bandwidth over extremely short distances are also "engineering hurdles," the company said.
"Exploring space as a viable location for scalable AI compute won't happen all at once. It takes methodical engineering, starting with proving our hardware can handle the physical and unpredictable realities of operating in orbit."
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Google Eyes Space-Based Data Centers for AI Computing
A prototype satellite will test whether Google’s AI chips can operate in orbit, an early step toward potentially linking satellite constellations to handle larger computing workloads.
Christian Charisius/TNS
