Google's test AI server in space has to pause every 15 minutes to cool down

A server that needs breaks

As TechNews reported, Google earlier put an AI server in space to see whether AI data centers could one day be built there. Google says the machine has to be forced to shut down roughly every 15 minutes, or its chips would overheat and burn out.

The test satellite is about the size of a refrigerator. It carries 4 AI chips and solar panels producing 1 kilowatt of power, about what a household microwave uses. Even with that small budget, the chips cannot run continuously. They stop and wait for the radiators to cool.

Cold space, but nowhere for heat to go

It seems odd that something so cold would be a problem. Space temperature is around -255 degrees Celsius, according to the report. But the surrounding vacuum insulates almost perfectly, much like a thermos bottle.

On the ground, a laptop uses a fan to push air past hot parts, and big data centers use cooling water to carry heat away. Space has neither air nor water. The only way out for heat is infrared radiation, meaning heat given off as invisible light.

Scaling up makes it harder

The report puts the larger problem in numbers. A single Nvidia GB200 server draws 120 kilowatts, and all of that ends up as heat. The International Space Station, with 6 huge radiators, can only shed 70 kilowatts.

So one high-end AI server produces heat close to double what the whole station can get rid of. Every extra watt of power a satellite uses has to be radiated back out as heat.

The race moves to radiators

Google plans to deploy 80 satellites in the future. The report adds that SpaceX keeps lowering the cost of launching satellites, which shifts the competition away from raw chip performance and toward cooling.

Its conclusion is that the team able to build the lightest radiator that sheds the most heat will be the one that shapes AI in space. Google itself says many difficulties remain before space data centers are practical.