The refrigerator-sized spacecraft carries four Google Trillium Tensor Processing Units (TPUs). The mission will test whether Google's AI hardware can withstand launch vibrations, radiation and the extreme thermal conditions of low-Earth orbit.
One of the biggest challenges is cooling. Unlike data centres on Earth, there is no air in space to carry heat away, so Google is experimenting with heat pipes and radiators to keep the processors within safe operating temperatures.
Project Suncatcher is part of Google's longer-term research into whether fleets of solar-powered satellites could eventually provide large-scale AI computing infrastructure in orbit. Google also plans further satellite tests in 2027, including high-bandwidth laser links between spacecraft.
