Google Suncatcher卫星在轨运行Gemma 4
据Google及多家媒体报道，Project Suncatcher原型卫星完成约三周的在轨调试，并开始与地面通信。地面工程师向预装的Gemma 4模型发出提示词，卫星返回了一首太空主题俳句，还完成了打油诗和遥测任务。Google称，受功耗限制，TPU每次只能运行约20分钟，后续将继续测试其在热应力和辐射环境下的表现。
该原型证明板载TPU能够在轨执行AI推理并把响应传回地面，同时暴露出轨道AI计算面临的功耗和辐射可靠性挑战。
Google Suncatcher’s prototype space data center is online and communicating with the ground after launching earlier this month alongside more than 100 other spacecraft on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
The satellite, which carries four Google Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) and generates up to 1 kW of electricity, is intended to pave the way for future networks of close-flying satellites performing large inference workloads in orbit. However, the power demands of the TPU mean it can only turn one on for about 20 minutes at a time, complicating the already tricky business of space-to-ground communications.
After a commissioning process that tested out the satellite’s subsystems over about three weeks, the spacecraft was ready to work. When engineers on the ground sent their first prompt this week, they asked the model pre-loaded onto the satellite, Google DeepMind’s Gemma 4, to write a haiku about being in space. And thus:
Blue marble below
Data streams in silent grace
Starlight feeds my core. ✨
Google said it tested the model with these space-themed limericks (they should have sent a poet?) and, perhaps more importantly, the company asked the spacecraft to report on the orbital conditions around the satellite.
#Google#Google DeepMind#Gemma 4#Google TPU#Project Suncatcher#SpaceX#Falcon 9