As space companies itch to push the most advanced chips into orbit, the problem of cooling those high-powered processors is top of mind.
“It’s cold in space…[but] there’s no airflow, and so the only way to to dissipate is through conduction,” NVidia CEO Jensen Huang when asked about space-based data centers during his firm’s most recent earnings call.
Now, Sophia Space has raised $10 million from investors including Alpha Funds, KDDI Green Partners Fund, and Unlock Venture Partners. The company plans to prove out a new approach to passively cooling space computers on the ground, then buy a satellite bus from Apex Space and show that it works in orbit by late 2027 or early 2028.
Companies like SpaceX, Google, or Starcloud are examining traditional satellite form factors for their proposed space data center constellations, which rely on large radiators to keep chips in optimal thermal condition. But Sophia Space’s founders — CTO Leon Alkalai, CEO Rob Demillo, and chief growth officer Brian Monin — have a different approach.
The company’s tech comes from an unusual source: a $100-million-endowed program at Caltech to develop orbital solar plants that would beam electricity to the Earth below. The researchers ultimately settled on a sail-like structure that is thin and flexible compared to boxy, traditional satellites.
While technical and regulatory challenges make producing electricity for the Earth difficult, Alkalai, a fellow at the Caltech-managed Jet Propulsion Laboratory, was struck by the idea of using the design to power space-based processors. (Aetherflux, a space solar power startup, has had a similar realization.)
Sophia, an NVidia partner, has designed modular server racks with integrated solar panels it calls TILES, which are one meter by one meter in area and a few centimeters in depth. By adopting this thin form factor, Demillo says that processors can sit against a passive heat spreader, eliminating the need for active cooling. He expects 92% of the power it generates will go to processing, a significant gain on traditional designs. This design requires, however, a sophisticated software management system to balance activity across the processors.
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