¶Data centers, in space, in the news. - While not particularly new or groundbreaking, the concept of moving energy-intensive AI (and other) compute to space is having a moment. On one hand, SSO and high orbits provide far more hours of sunlight than are available on Earth, and having the infrastructure there reduces terrestrial energy and water use issues. On the other hand, GPUs are high CAPEX with short useful lives (possibly necessitating upgrades in orbit), and dissipating all of the waste heat generated during computation will be challenging in the vacuum thermos of space. Nonetheless, numerous orgs are piling on.
- NVIDIA-backed startup Starcloud has a first test launch, in collaboration with infrastructure provider Crusoe, NET late 2026.
- Jeff Bezos, Eric Schmidt (who now owns Relativity Space), and now Elon Musk have all expressed interest. Elon recently replied to an Ars article about space-based data centers with, âSimply scaling up Starlink V3 satellites, which have high speed laser links would work. SpaceX will be doing this.â
- Not to be left out, Google took the wraps off its Project Suncatcher, a study into a constellation of solar-powered satellites hosting AI compute infrastructure with laser crosslinks to scale machine learning. A preprint paper describes models of high-bandwidth intersatellite links, dynamics of sun-synchronous orbits for near-constant sunlight, and studies into the radiation hardness of Googleâs AI-focused Tensor Processing Units (TPUs). To achieve the required inter-satellite bandwidth, they propose flying satellites in very close proximity (potentially sub-kilometer, their study looked at just 100-200m separation). Google also tested their TPUs in a 67MeV proton beam, finding irregularities after a cumulative dose of 2 krad, which they say is 3x the expected shielded five-year mission dose (although we wonder about the required level of shielding might be). Google projects launch costs below $200/kg by the mid-2030s, which we also anticipate. âAt that price point, the cost of launching and operating a space-based data center could become roughly comparable to the reported energy costs of an equivalent terrestrial data center on a per-kilowatt/year basis.â Weâd love to see more about their thermal analysis. Google is partnering with Planet for a test mission of two prototype satellites NET early 2027.
- Alternatively, we could transmit solar energy collected in space down to Earth, where upgrading GPUs is easy, no radiation shielding is required, and energy can be used where itâs most needed. This vision of space solar energy for Earth is being pushed forward by companies like Aetherflux, Virtus Solis, Space Solar, and Overview Energy, a startup which Andrew co-foundedâmore on Overview soon!
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 | Starcloudâs vision of data centers, delivered by Starship, as shipping containers in space. |
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¶New Glenn mission NG-02 sticks the landing. After terrestrial and space weather delays, the usual wayward downrange boat, along with a hold or two, Blue Originâs second New Glenn mission launched. The heavy-lift rocket climbed into the Florida skies, successfully set its high-efficiency second stage on course for an escape trajectory, and returned its booster to the autonomous drone ship Jacklyn (landing video). New Glenn, weighing ~1,650 tons when fueled, has a stated payload to LEO of 45 tons, roughly double that of Falcon 9 (which weighs in at 550 tons) and similar to Falcon Heavy (1,420 tons). New Glennâs first stage is 16+ meters taller than a Falcon first stage, making this landing the largest booster ever to land at sea (Starshipâs 52 m upper stage has splashed down, but will eventually be caught by a land-based tower when mature). Despite the size difference, Jacklyn/LPV1, New Glennâs landing pad droneship, is only slightly bigger than Falcon 9âs due to NGâs ability to deep throttle, hover, and translate into position, unlike F9âs hoverslam. Jacklyn is equipped with a robot that performs safing and 6 robotic transport stands that secure the booster to the ship. Additionally, immediately after landing, the booster explosively welds (patent) itself to the deck (rather than doing this). Blue is hoping to reuse this booster (named Never Tell Me the Odds) on its very next flight, which the company is currently aiming to have happen early next year. The missionâs payload was ESCAPADE, two spacecraft that will study the Martian magnetosphere and how its atmosphere has been stripped by the solar wind over time (also useful to understand if weâre ever to try terraforming the red planet). ESCAPADE was managed (under budget!) by UC Berkeley Space Science Lab and built by Rocket Lab. Due to New Glenn not being ready, the mission missed its original launch window last year. So, while weâre not currently in a Mars transfer window, New Glenn was available now (and maybe so was the NASA budgetâŠ), so ESCAPADE will loiter around Earth-Sun L2 (not Cleveland) for about a year before flying back near Earth for an efficient burn deep in our gravity well before heading on to Mars. (Related: New Glennâs comparatively quick success with recovering boosters isnât likely to trouble SpaceX in the near term, which has been landing rockets for 9 years and just completed its 500th mission with reused rocket boosters, but may spell trouble for ULA, to whom Blue just delivered another set of new BE-4 engines.) |
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 | Never Tell Me the Oddsâ GS-1, landed and welded to Jacklynâs deck, with banana-colored humans for scale. |
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| ¶News in brief. Yet more in-space manufacturing news: Atmos Space Cargo and Space Cargo Unlimited will launch the first of their planned seven orbital manufacturing research and reentry missions next year â Rocket Lab (unsurprisingly) delayed Neutronâs debut to 2026 to continue qualification testing â In a move that definitely wonât lead to any future confusion, Project Kuiper has been rebranded to Amazon Leo â French satellite manufacturer U Space raised a $27.8M Series A to ramp up production â ISRO completed a parachute air drop test for the crew module for their upcoming first crewed Gaganyaan mission, currently NET 2027 â One of the DSN antennas in California has been offline for months after it was damaged by over-rotating, which stressed cabling â North Carolina-based Extellis raised an $6.8M seed round to fund their first demo imaging satellite â Infinite Orbits secured a $46M round of investment from multiple partners across the EU to accelerate the deployment of a fleet of inspection and life-extension satellites for European GEO assets â Shenzhou-20 astronauts safely returned to Earth on the recently launched Shenzhou-21 vehicle after orbital debris cracked a window on their original return vehicle (c.f. Issue 344), leaving the Shenzhou-21 crew without an escape/return vehicle until Shenzhou-22 launches in the near future.  |
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 | Recovery efforts to extract Shenzhou-20 astronauts from the Shenzhou-21 return module after touching down in Inner Mongolia. |
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¶Jobs.- Pioneer Labs is hiring an Operations Associate in Emeryville, CA. Pioneer is âbuilding the first microbes that can turn Martian dirt, water, and air into the building materials needed to sustain life in the low-resource environment of the red planet,â so thatâs pretty darn cool.
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¶Etc.- TerraWatchâs Aravind Ravichandran shared his opinion on âWhy "Science-as-a-Service" doesn't work for Earth Science.â
- In case we havenât linked it before, the Armagh Observatory has a fun series on the largest rocket concepts that never made it to the pad (parts 1, 2, and 3).
- Ars reported recently on Russia's 15-year project to finish construction of the Vostochny spaceport, a development project deeply marred by hunger strikes, unpaid workers, purges of top officials for corruption, theft of $126M, and âa man driving a diamond-encrusted Mercedes [who] was arrested after embezzling $75,000.â Now, the contractor building the spaceport has failed to pay its energy bills (~$600k), and power has been shut off to under-construction areas of the spaceport, with the contractor possibly heading into bankruptcy. Russia hopes to launch its newest launch vehicle, Angara, from this facility in the future, allowing it to phase out the aging Proton.
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