Google's orbital data center project faces space debris risks

Google's Project Suncatcher, a proposed orbital data center, faces significant risks from space debris in its planned orbit. The project aims to use 81 satellites in a sun-synchronous orbit to power AI data centers with solar energy, but this orbit is already heavily congested with debris. The dense formation required for Project Suncatcher's distributed computing makes it vulnerable to collisions, potentially triggering a cascade of debris and rendering the orbit unusable.