Google wants data centres in space by 2027
Google is working on Project Suncatcher, a long-term research project to eventually run machine learning and AI in space.
The first satellites equipped with AI hardware are scheduled to leave Earth in 2027. Google chief Sundar Pichai said so last week in an interview with Fox News.
The project is intended to help curb the growing energy demand of artificial intelligence by making direct use of solar energy outside the atmosphere.
Project Suncatcher is based on the logic that the sun provides millions of times more energy than we currently generate across the entire Earth. By placing data centres in orbit, the company hopes to harness that energy more directly, without the interference of the atmosphere.
Google is not the only one following this line of reasoning. Elon Musk is already working on it. The new generation of his Starlink satellites is to carry servers which, when linked together by laser, form a data centre.
He foresees this leading to solar-powered AI satellites that offer enormous computing power without placing an energy burden on Earth. Musk estimates this will be achievable within four to five years for 100GW per year to high orbits, and eventually even 100TW per year from a Moon base.
Start-ups such as Starcloud and Lumen Orbit are already testing GPUs in orbit, Red Hat and Axiom Space are building a data centre in space, and Lonestar Data Holdings briefly operated a data centre on the Moon for the storage and processing of digital data.
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