Sophia Space Raises $10 Million to Demonstrate New Space Computers
The race among space companies to launch the most sophisticated microchips into orbit has brought the issue of cooling these high-performance processors into sharp focus. As NVidia CEO Jensen Huang noted during a recent company conference call, “It’s cold in space…”[but] “There is no airflow and therefore the only way to dissipate is through air ducting.”
Sophia Space’s Novel Approach to Cooling
In a bid to address this challenge, Sophia Space has secured $10 million in funding from investors including Alpha Funds, KDDI Green Partners Fund, and Unlock Venture Partners. The firm aims to test a fresh approach to passively cooling space computers on the ground, before purchasing a satellite bus from Apex Space to demonstrate its effectiveness in orbit by late 2027 or early 2028.
While renowned companies like SpaceX, Google, and Starcloud are exploring traditional satellite form factors for their upcoming space data center constellations—relying upon large radiators to maintain chips at optimal thermal conditions—Sophia Space is carving its own path.
The Potential of Sail-Like Structures
The company’s technology, brought to life by CTO Leon Alkalai, CEO Rob Demillo, and Chief Growth Officer Brian Monin, stems from an unexpected source: a $100 million program at Caltech aimed at developing orbital solar arrays to transmit electricity to Earth. The researchers ultimately decided on a sail-like structure that is thin and flexible, in stark contrast to traditional, boxy satellites.
Although the technical and regulatory challenges associated with generating electricity for Earth are considerable, Alkalai was intrigued by the idea of utilizing the design to power space-based processors. This notion is also shared by Aetherflux, a space solar energy startup.
Sophia Space’s Innovative Design
As an NVidia partner, Sophia Space has engineered modular server racks with incorporated solar panels called TILES. These units are a meter square and just a few centimeters deep. According to Demillo, this slim form factor enables processors to be placed on a passive heat spreader, negating the need for active cooling. He estimates that this design will allow 92% of the generated electricity to be used for processing—a significant improvement on traditional designs—but it does require a sophisticated software management system to balance activity between processors.
The Future of Space Data Centers
By the 2030s, Sophia Space plans to construct larger space data centers using thousands of TILES, envisioning a 50 x 50 meter structure with a computing power of 1 MW. Demillo believes that attempting to establish space data centers with less efficient systems will be uneconomical and that a single structure will be easier to implement than a distributed, laser-connected network.
For the time being, Sophia Space intends to initially offer its TILES to satellite operators in need of in-orbit computing solutions. Potential partners could include Earth observation satellites collecting large volumes of sensor data, missile warning and tracking systems that the Pentagon is investing billions in, or even increasingly complex communication networks.
Demillo revealed to TechCrunch that, “The dirty little secret of the satellite industry is that we have all these amazing sensors up there that are generating terabytes or even petabytes of data every few minutes, and they’re throwing away most of it because they can’t do the calculations on board and they can’t get back and forth to the surface fast enough.” Sophia Space’s solution could revolutionize the industry by allowing more efficient data processing in orbit.
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