Google's Project Suncatcher Takes Flight with AI Chip Launch
Google's Project Suncatcher aims to send AI chips into space for the first time. A prototype satellite carrying four Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) will launch aboard SpaceX's Transporter-18 rideshare mission next week, marking a crucial test of the initiative. The mission is not meant to prove the entire concept at once but rather to identify what works and what doesn't.
The TPUs will be exposed to extreme conditions during the 10-minute rocket ride into low Earth orbit, including intense vibration and forces up to 10 times the pull of gravity. Google has tested its Trillium TPU chips' radiation resistance by exposing them to a proton beam at UC Davis's Crocker Nuclear Laboratory.
The company is also tackling the cooling problem in space, where there's no air to carry heat away. It's testing a combination of heat pipes and radiators that have been verified inside a thermal vacuum chamber mimicking space conditions.