Google Suncatcher的原型空间数据中心是在线的，本月早些时候发布之后与空间X猎鹰9号火箭上的其他100多艘航天器一起与地面通信。
该卫星载有一个单一的Google Tensor处理装置(TPU)并产生高达1千瓦的电力，目的是为未来在轨道上进行大量推断的近距离飞行卫星网络铺平道路。 然而，TPU的动力需求意味着它每次只能开启约20分钟，使已经很棘手的地对地通信业务复杂化。
航天器经过大约三周的试运行过程，对卫星的分系统进行了测试，然后准备工作。 当地面的工程师本周送出他们的第一张快报时，他们要求预先装入卫星的模型"Google DeepMind's Gemma 4"写一首关于"在太空"的海库。 因此：
蓝色大理石下面
静态数据流
星光供养我的核心
Google 称用这些以空间为主题的石灰石测试了该模型(他们本应该送来一位诗人？)，也许更重要的是，该公司要求航天器报告卫星周围的轨道状况。
发言人告诉TechCrunch，卫星名义上运行。
正在进行的试验活动将审查芯片在受热压力下和空间辐射环境中的表现。 Google在地球上的粒子加速器中广泛测试了它的TPU，但现在需要看看辐射对其在太空中的硬件的真正影响如何影响它们的处理器。 辐射可造成“比特翻转”——在计算机内存中产生存储值——而这反过来又会破坏数据而不触发典型的监测工具。
实地的测试表明，辐射的影响对于推论工作量是最小的，对于培训一个模型来说是一个更大的问题，但现在Google小组将评估这些动态，而不是模拟。
如果这个航天器上的TPU被证明是有能力的，下一步将是在2027年再增加两颗装有先进芯片的发布卫星。 这些航天器将支持更高的发电，并展示卫星间光学联系。
Google的Starcloud项目在规划卫星之间的高速联系以支持一致的分布工作量方面，在天基数据中心的愿景中大多是孤立的；Space-X’s数据中心预计也会使用激光连接，但也会在相距太远的轨道上有效共享处理。 星云和牛仔太空等公司期望在单个卫星上进行推论载荷。
Google和SpaceQQ的视野紧密相联。 Alphabet,Google的母公司，在SpaceX拥有了重要的投资股份。 而对于发布的轨道数据中心，两家公司都要求"星际飞船"(Starship)，即位于埃隆·穆斯克太空视野中心的仍在开发中的重力起重火箭，能够被全面而迅速地再用。
在本月早些时候发表的同行评审分析中，Suncatcher研究者估计SpaceX需要飞出1800次"星舰"，以达到其早期飞行器所看到的由学习驱动的降低成本的目标。
Suncatcher是一个经典的Google moonshot——该公司的重点是设计20世纪30年代经济的基础设施。 然而，能否到那里，可能取决于其他公司如何在近期内对大赦国际的压力和机会作出反应。 Google的母公司Alphabet本周报告，将AI插入搜索业务的努力正在损害收入增长
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Google Suncatcher’s prototype space data center is online and communicating with the ground after launching earlier this month alongside more than 100 other spacecraft on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
The satellite, which carries a single Google Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) and generates up to 1 kW of electricity, is intended to pave the way for future networks of close-flying satellites performing large inference workloads in orbit. However, the power demands of the TPU mean it can only turn on for about twenty minutes at a time, complicating the already tricky business of space-to-ground communications.
After a commissioning process that tested out the satellite’s subsystems over about three weeks, the spacecraft was ready to work. When engineers on the ground sent their first prompt this week, they asked the model pre-loaded onto the satellite, Google DeepMind’s Gemma 4, to write a haiku about being in space. And thus:
Blue marble below
Data streams in silent grace
Starlight feeds my core. ✨
Google said it tested the model with these space-themed limericks (they should have sent a poet?) and, perhaps more importantly, the company asked the spacecraft to report on the orbital conditions around the satellite.
A spokesperson told TechCrunch that the satellite was operating nominally.
The ongoing test campaign will examine how the chips perform under thermal stress and in the space radiation environment. Google has extensively tested its TPUs in particle accelerators on Earth, but now needs to see how radiation’s real effects on their hardware in space affect their processor. Radiation can cause “bit flips”—causing a stored value in computer memory—and that in turn can corrupt data without triggering typical monitoring tools.
Testing on the ground suggested the impact of radiation would be minimal for inference workloads and more of a problem for training a model, but now the Google team will get to assess those dynamics in reality, not a simulation.
If the TPU onboard this spacecraft proves capable, the next step will be launching two more satellites equipped with the advanced chips in 2027. Those spacecraft will support higher power generation and demonstrate inter-satellite optical links.
Google’s Starcloud project is largely alone among visions for space-based data centers in planning on high-speed links between the satellites to support coherent distributed workloads; SpaceX’s data centers are also expected to use laser links but also to orbit too far apart to share processing effectively. Companies like Starcloud and Cowboy Space expect to perform inference loads on individual satellites.
Google and SpaceX’s visions are closely linked. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, holds a significant investment stake in SpaceX. And to launch their orbital data centers, both companies will require Starship, the still-in-development heavy-lift rocket at the center of Elon Musk’s space vision, to be fully and rapidly reusable.
In a peer-reviewed analysis published earlier this month, Suncatcher researchers estimated that SpaceX would need to fly Starship 1,800 times to achieve the same learning-driven cost reductions it saw with its earlier vehicles.
Suncatcher is a classic Google moonshot—the company’s focus is on designing infrastructure that will be economical in the 2030s. Getting there, however, may depend on how the rest of the company responds to the pressures and opportunities of AI in the near term. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, saw its stock plunge this week after reporting that efforts to insert AI into its search businesses are hurting ad revenue growth.
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