{"id":618188,"date":"2026-10-02T06:26:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T06:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/618188\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T06:26:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T06:26:12","slug":"google-launches-first-datacenter-satellite-and-research-that-finds-orbiting-bit-barns-can-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/618188\/","title":{"rendered":"Google launches first datacenter satellite and research that finds orbiting bit barns can work"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n systems\n <\/p>\n

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\n If SpaceX can launch 1,800 Starships, and researchers nail gnarly networking, design and formation flying problems,\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

Google\u2019s first \u201cSuncatcher\u201d datacenter satellite has made it into space, but the company has cast doubt on whether its orbital ambitions can scale.<\/p>\n

As The Register reported last week<\/a>, Project Suncatcher aims to test whether Google\u2019s tensor processing units (TPUs) can survive a launch and the harsh environment of space. The Big G hopes to validate theories that the limitless supply of solar energy available in space makes the cost of putting servers into orbit sensible.<\/p>\n

In its announcement<\/a> of a successful Suncatcher launch, Google linked to its own peer-reviewed researc<\/a>h about the endeavor \u2013 which outlines many thorny challenges that must be met to make orbital datacenters fly.<\/p>\n

The paper, titled \u201cToward a future space-based, highly scalable AI infrastructure system design,\u201d notes that SpaceX and others have suggested that orbital datacenters become viable when launch costs fall to $200\/kg.<\/p>\n

Google\u2019s researchers also note that SpaceX has managed to reduce the cost to launch a kilogram into orbit by 20 percent after every doubling of the cumulative mass it launched. If SpaceX can keep that up, which will mean launching 370,000 t additional cumulative mass, the equivalent of around 1,800 successful launches of its giant Starship rocket, and re-using components 100 times, Google thinks $200\/kg is \u201cplausible under reasonable assumptions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Google doesn\u2019t know the mass of its future datacenter satellites, but points to Starlink\u2019s second-gen sats weighing 575kg and then compares the cost of sending a satellite into space with the price to power servers on Earth.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf launch costs reach \u2272$200\/kg, annualized cost per unit of power in space could be approximately comparable to terrestrial spend,\u201d is Google\u2019s conclusion.<\/p>\n

The paper\u2019s calculations on future launch costs use data from SpaceX and other rocket operators.<\/p>\n

The other technologies needed to make datacenters in space remain largely theoretical. For example, the paper notes that existing network technologies probably aren\u2019t suitable to link multiple satellites into functioning clusters. The need for rapid comms between satellites means Google\u2019s plans require a design \u201csignificantly larger and entail much closer formation flight \u2026 than any previous or current satellite constellations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Google also thinks that satellite design will need to evolve.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur system design work to this point assumes a relatively conventional, discrete compute payload, satellite bus, thermal radiator, and solar panel design,\u201d the paper states. \u201cHowever, as has been seen in other industries (such as smartphones), massively scaled production motivates highly integrated designs (such as the system on chip, or SoC). Eventually, scaled space-based computing would similarly involve an integrated compute, radiator, and power design based on next-generation architectures, such as computational substrates based on neural cellular automata.\u201d<\/p>\n

Google\u2019s researchers also found \u201crobust optical satellite-ground communications will also be critical for scaled operation but will necessitate overcoming challenges including atmospheric turbulence, high-speed relative motion errors, and precision beam tracking.\u201d NASA\u2019s TeraByte Infrared Delivery (TBIRD) mission, which has demonstrated 200 Gbps ground-low-earth-orbit comms, is cited as a promising approach.<\/p>\n

Google\u2019s researchers therefore concluded that realizing its space datacenter ambitions \u201cwill require sustained research, iterative refinement of our design, and the achievement of several critical future milestones.\u201d \u00ae<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"systems If SpaceX can launch 1,800 Starships, and researchers nail gnarly networking, design and formation flying problems,\u00a0 Google\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":618189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[111,139,69,147,392],"class_list":["post-618188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/618189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}