Google's Suncatcher prototype space data center is online, testing custom TPU performance under real orbital thermal stress and radiation conditions.
Learn how engineers managed power constraints and ran on-board AI models in space.
The satellite carries a special Google chip and generates up to 1 kilowatt of electricity. Due to power requirements, the chip can only remain active for about twenty minutes at a time.
The first communication and haiku from space
Engineers asked the Gemma 4 artificial intelligence system on the satellite to write a haiku about life in space. The system responded by writing a short poem.
In addition to this, the satellite sent a report on the conditions prevailing around it in space and, according to reports, is operating normally.
Space tests and future plans
The current testing period will examine how the chip performs under thermal stress and space radiation. Radiation can cause alterations that distort data without being detected by monitoring systems.
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If the chip proves its worth, Google plans to launch two more satellites equipped with the advanced chip in 2027. Alphabet maintains a significant investment stake in SpaceX, and both companies rely on the heavy Starship rocket for their space data centers. Suncatcher researchers estimated that SpaceX would need 1.800 Starship flights to achieve the cost reduction that learning is driving.
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