Google's space AI experiment launches tomorrow

Google's Project Suncatcher will send a satellite named MVP aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on October 1 to test AI chips in orbit.

Four chips, one server's worth of power

The satellite carries four specialized computer chips called tensor processing units that together offer the power of a single server in a conventional data center.

Solar power runs the experiment

Solar panels will supply just one kilowatt of power to the chips, equivalent to the energy needed to run a hair dryer, enough to test hardware against space conditions.

Radiation poses a serious threat

The chips have been tested at Crocker Nuclear Laboratory to simulate space radiation, which can cause bit flips that flip binary code from one to zero or vice versa.

Google's cooling system has limits

A proprietary cooling system uses conductive material to expel heat into space but only works for around fifteen minutes before the chips must be turned off to cool down.

Years away from real operations

James Manyika, Senior Vice President for Research, Technology and Society at Google, says the company does not expect to have anything usefully operational in the next few years.

“We don't expect, to be perfectly frank, that we'll have anything usefully operational in the next few years.”

Google plans to scale up despite challenges

Google plans to launch two similar satellites next year and eventually launch eighty satellites flying in close formation, plus a much larger satellite around the size of a football field.