As artificial intelligence establishes its presence everywhere, so too have the data centers that power it. Google has a solution to prevent data centers from taking up too much space on Earth — putting them into actual space instead.
Per the company’s research, the falling price of space launches would make the cost of operating a space-based data center equal to that of running an Earth-based one by the middle of the next decade. Scientists and engineers with the company believe the data centers could be formed by constellations of roughly 80 solar-powered satellites orbiting 400 miles above the Earth’s surface with powerful processors.
Solar panels in orbit would be eight times more productive than those on the planet’s surface. The data centers would transmit information to and from the ground via optical links, which typically use light or laser beams. “In the future, space may be the best place to scale AI computers,” Google said. “This approach would have tremendous potential for scale, and also minimizes impact on terrestrial resources.”
