Google is sending Tensor Processing Units to orbit on a SpaceX Falcon 9, La DH reported from the company's blog, and Space.com says the Project Suncatcher prototype on Transporter-18 carries four TPUs built into a Planet satellite. The stated test measures launch stress, radiation and heat. La DH says Google treats cooling and satellite-to-satellite links as later obstacles, and that low orbit receives up to 8 times the solar energy available on Earth.
Artificial Intelligence··Evening
A prototype satellite carries the chips
Google is preparing a flight to see how its Tensor Processing Units behave off the Earth. La DH, citing Belga, says TPU units will fly next week on a SpaceX Falcon 9. Space.com, writing on 25 September about a Google announcement dated 24 September, says a prototype satellite for Project Suncatcher will fly on the Transporter-18 rideshare. Space.com says the satellite was built by Planet, the San Francisco Earth-imaging company that has partnered with Google on Project Suncatcher. The prototype carries four TPUs. The test is a first look at the hardware in orbit, not an operating orbital data centre.[1], [2]
The blog names stress, radiation and heat
La DH says the stated aim is to measure the physical stress of flight, radiation and thermal extremes. The same Google post, as La DH reports it, claims satellites in low orbit receive up to 8 times the solar energy available on Earth. That energy claim is the company's, carried by La DH. Space.com adds that Google will watch how the TPUs are affected by space radiation and how the heat they generate is dissipated. It attributes a plan to operate for a year to The New York Times, so that duration is not Space.com's own measurement.[1], [2]
Cooling and links stay on the ground for now
La DH says Google lists cooling for orbital data centres and communication between satellites as technical obstacles. The company says large-scale AI compute in orbit will not be built in one step and that the hardware first has to be shown to work there. Later constellations could be linked so larger workloads run in orbit. The flight La DH places on a Falcon 9 is the hardware check behind those obstacles, and Space.com's prototype on Transporter-18 is the four-chip craft that would fly. Neither report says the chips will train models for customers on this flight.[1], [2]
