China has successfully launched the first 12 satellites for its planned orbital supercomputer network project. The satellites were created by ADA Space and form what the company calls the “Three-Body Computing Constellation”, which is part of a wider program. The program, known as “Star Compute”, is a collaboration with Zhejiang Lab that aims to create a network consisting of 2,800 satellites.
According to ADA Space, each of the 12 satellites feature an AI model with eight billion parameters. The AI model is capable of 744 tera operations per second, which means the entire collective can handle 5 peta operations per second. The Chinese government aims to eventually create a network of thousands of satellites that can perform 1,000 peta operations per second.
The satellites use lasers to communicate with each other at speeds of up to 100Gbps, and share 30 terabytes of storage between them. One of the satellites also features a cosmic X-ray polarimeter for detecting, identifying, as well as classifying transient cosmic events such as gamma-ray bursts.
The company explained that the development of the constellation can meet the growing demand for real-time computing in space, as well as aid the country in advancing space computing infrastructure. Apparently, there is some merit in constructing a supercomputer in space, like saving time as the satellites do not need to rely on terrestrial stations.
(Source: The Verge, Space News, Weixin)
