Google is in talks with SpaceX, Elon Musk’s aerospace company, for possible future launches related to Project Suncatcher (literally: “Sun catcher”), its orbital data center project.
WHAT IS THE ADVANTAGE OF DATA CENTERS IN SPACE?
Placing data centers in space, in Earth’s orbit, is theoretically advantageous because it would solve two of the main problems of these facilities: the large water consumption for cooling and electricity for general operation. In space, instead, heat could be dissipated into the vacuum via infrared radiation, while the energy demand could be met by almost continuous sunlight.
On the other hand, it is a complex solution to implement in practice, as well as very expensive.
WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT GOOGLE’S PROJECT SUNCATCHER
Google’s Project Suncatcher consists of an orbital network of solar-powered satellites equipped with Tensor Processing Units, a type of microprocessor designed to quickly perform calculations in artificial intelligence models. The first launch is expected in 2027, in collaboration with the Californian satellite company Planet Labs.
SPACEX IS ALSO AIMING FOR DATA CENTERS IN ORBIT
The development of data centers in Earth’s orbit is one of the key topics SpaceX is focusing on with investors, ahead of the initial public offering planned for this summer.
In this regard, last week SpaceX reached an agreement with the artificial intelligence startup Anthropic to grant it the use of the computing capacity of the “supercomputer” Colossus 1 and to work together on the development of orbital data centers with several gigawatts of capacity.
BEZOS’ BLUE ORIGIN DOESN’T WANT TO FALL BEHIND
Also betting on data centers in space is the Californian startup Starcloud, specialized in their construction and orbit deployment, but above all the main rival of SpaceX: Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ aerospace company.
Last March Blue Origin requested authorization from US authorities for the development of Project Sunrise, a constellation of over 50,000 satellites to offer computing services from Earth’s orbit, powered by solar energy. The first launch is expected in 2027.
AND META?
Meta, the technology company owning Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, is also looking to space: last month, in fact, it signed an agreement with Overview Energy to power its data centers on Earth from orbit.
Overview Energy is developing a satellite system to collect solar energy in space and send it to photovoltaic plants on Earth in the form of a low-intensity near-infrared light beam: in this way, solar panels will be able to generate electricity continuously. The system is expected to reach commercial phase by 2030 and provide Meta with up to 1 GW of capacity.
