{"id":46476,"date":"2026-07-29T20:18:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T12:18:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/ai-plus-ip-sophia-space-and-caltech-secure-a-patent-for-orbital-data-centers-that-use-passive-cooling\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T20:18:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T12:18:06","slug":"ai-plus-ip-sophia-space-and-caltech-secure-a-patent-for-orbital-data-centers-that-use-passive-cooling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/ai-plus-ip-sophia-space-and-caltech-secure-a-patent-for-orbital-data-centers-that-use-passive-cooling\/","title":{"rendered":"AI plus IP: Sophia Space and Caltech secure a patent for orbital data centers that use passive cooling"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" loading=\"eager\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1260\" height=\"709\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/260730-tilesat-1260x709.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-941357\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/260730-tilesat-1260x709.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/260730-tilesat-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/260730-tilesat-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/260730-tilesat-2048x1152.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" class=\"wp-element-caption\">An artist\u2019s conception shows a data center satellite that makes use of Sophia Space\u2019s tile-based architecture. (Sophia Space Illustration)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sophia Space has secured a patent for a technology that could pave the way for solar-powered orbital data centers that passively radiate excess heat into space.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Developed in partnership with Caltech, Sophia\u2019s architecture tackles a major hurdle in orbital computing: how to cool thousands of chips running artificial intelligence applications in space.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Traditional designs rely on satellite-wide radiator systems with heat pumps and circulating fluids. In contrast, Sophia plans to build flat, 4-inch-square modular tiles equipped with four processors each. The tiles draw power from solar cells on their sunlit side, and shed heat into the cold vacuum of space from their dark side.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This approach avoids having to put a cooling system in the central bus of every satellite, said Leon Alkalai, Sophia Space\u2019s co-founder, chairman and chief technology officer. \u201cI think you will find in time that our approach is much more favorable when we scale to larger wattage systems, because bringing everything into a bus can only be done until a certain level, and then it becomes almost impossible to do,\u201d he told GeekWire. \u201cOur benefit is really scalability.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"google_ads_iframe_\/16932871\/300x250_top_mobile_0\" name=\"google_ads_iframe_\/16932871\/300x250_top_mobile_0\" title=\"\u7b2c\u4e09\u65b9\u5e7f\u544a\u5185\u5bb9\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\" scrolling=\"no\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" frameborder=\"0\" aria-label=\"\u5e7f\u544a\" tabindex=\"0\" data-load-complete=\"true\" data-google-container-id=\"2\" style=\"border: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An added benefit of the satellite design is that each tile is powered independently. \u201cThe connectivity between the tiles is with fiber optic connectors,\u201d Alkalai said. \u201cOnly data is shared. No power, no thermal, no copper wires. It\u2019s just fiber optic links.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Alkalai and his team came up with a fitting acronym for the design of the modules: TILE, which stands for Thermal Integrated LEO Edge. (LEO stands for \u201clow Earth orbit.\u201d)<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1260\" height=\"745\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/260729-alkalai-1260x745.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-941382\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/260729-alkalai-1260x745.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/260729-alkalai-768x454.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/260729-alkalai-1536x908.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/260729-alkalai-2048x1211.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" class=\"wp-element-caption\">Sophia Space\u2019s founder, Leon Alkalai, speaks during a Seattle Tech Week fireside chat. (GeekWire Photo \/ Alan Boyle)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How it all began<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Alkalai founded Sophia Space after he finished up a 32-year career at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Lab and transitioned to the space startup world in 2021. The company is headquartered in Pasadena, Calif., but also has corporate connections to Seattle. This week, Alkalai was one of the featured speakers for Seattle Tech Week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The TILE approach to orbital electronics came out of a Caltech research project that initially focused on space solar power systems.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThat was before 2022, when ChatGPT was announced,\u201d Alkalai said. \u201cOnce that happened, within a year, all hell broke loose in the data center world, saying we need a thousand times more energy to power AI \u2014 and our reason to exist just skyrocketed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Putting data centers in orbit would get around some of the problems associated with terrestrial data centers \u2014 for example, the mushrooming requirements for real estate and the huge drain on electrical grids. But the cooling issue has loomed as a key impediment for orbital computing.<\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"google_ads_iframe_\/16932871\/300x250_mid_0\" name=\"google_ads_iframe_\/16932871\/300x250_mid_0\" title=\"\u7b2c\u4e09\u65b9\u5e7f\u544a\u5185\u5bb9\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\" scrolling=\"no\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" frameborder=\"0\" aria-label=\"\u5e7f\u544a\" tabindex=\"0\" data-load-complete=\"true\" data-google-container-id=\"3\" style=\"border: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Alkalai said the \u201ceureka moment\u201d came when he and his fellow researchers came up with a way to balance out the solar power absorbed by the front of the tile, the power requirements for the processing chips, and the heat radiating out the back. \u201cWe did the basic math and said, \u2018Oh my God, this can work,&#8217;\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The patent application for \u201cSpace-Based Data Centers\u201d was filed in October 2024, and the patent was granted to Sophia Space and Caltech on July 14. In addition to Alkalai, six other members of the team are listed as inventors: John Brophy, Jonathan Sauder, Timothy McElrath and Douglas Sheldon at JPL; Sergio Pellegrino at Caltech; and Don Hunter, a JPL retiree.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a news release, Brophy said the TILE architecture \u201cwas developed as part of JPL\u2019s mission to address challenges of national significance by applying unique JPL talent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis is an illustration of how JPL, Caltech and private industry can work together to rapidly develop solutions to difficult technical problems for the benefit of the nation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"How Do Our Orbital TILEs Work?\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HZAtMNsMsS4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<\/figure>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Where it\u2019s all going<\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Alkalai said his fellow inventors will share in the fruits of the patent. \u201cAll of them are involved in Sophia, and they have equity in the company,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd with Caltech, we\u2019ve signed a contract to continue doing research with Sergio Pellegrino and his students. \u2026 We are continuing this effort with the original inventors. They are consulting and are equity holders of Sophia.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"google_ads_iframe_\/16932871\/300x250_mobile_article_bottom_0\" name=\"google_ads_iframe_\/16932871\/300x250_mobile_article_bottom_0\" title=\"\u7b2c\u4e09\u65b9\u5e7f\u544a\u5185\u5bb9\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\" scrolling=\"no\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" frameborder=\"0\" aria-label=\"\u5e7f\u544a\" tabindex=\"0\" data-load-complete=\"true\" data-google-container-id=\"4\" style=\"border: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The development timeline calls for Sophia to fly its first technology demonstrator next year. \u201cWe\u2019ve announced that we are partnering with Apex satellites,\u201d Alkalai said. \u201cWe\u2019re using their Nova bus \u2026 and that will be the first-ever tech demo of a tile with four GPUs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Alkalai said Sophia Space plans to start selling TILE systems and related components to customers in 2028, and start testing the system\u2019s capabilities with a constellation of four to six satellites in the 2029-2030 time frame.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhat that will do is demonstrate the end-to-end system,\u201d he said. \u201cThen, in the new decade, we can scale up to larger numbers in the constellation, larger numbers of tiles, and so on.\u201d  <\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1260\" height=\"709\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/260730-tileassembly-1260x709.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-941393\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/260730-tileassembly-1260x709.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/260730-tileassembly-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/260730-tileassembly-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/260730-tileassembly-2048x1152.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1260px) 100vw, 1260px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" class=\"wp-element-caption\">Computer processing tiles are assembled inside a Sophia Space lab. (Sophia Space Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Alkalai said obtaining the newly issued patent is part of Sophia\u2019s plan to build up a strong portfolio of intellectual property. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf anybody wants to license or use our TILE and use our scalable approach, we could turn that into a business,\u201d he said. \u201cProtecting your IP is not only to deny, it\u2019s also to enable. And I see it more as the latter. Why would somebody fight it? They could license it, and we could make this applicable all over the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Alkalai said the orbital data centers that are being planned by other companies \u2014 for example, SpaceX\u2019s ambitious Starmind network and the satellite constellation envisioned by Redmond, Wash.-based Starcloud \u2014 don\u2019t appear to be designed to take advantage of passive cooling and would thus raise no questions of infringement on Sophia Space\u2019s patent. But he suspects that the TILE architecture will eventually become the standard for orbital data centers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019ve been on this quest for five years, and I really feel very, very good about this particular topic, because I think it\u2019s of benefit to humanity,\u201d Alkalai said. \u201cThis is not just a money issue, or about benefits to me or my team. I just think this is a good direction for humanity as we evolve into a space economy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An artist\u2019s conception shows a data center satellite that makes use of Sophia Space\u2019s tile-based architecture. (Sophia Space Illustration) Sophia Space has secured a patent for a technology that could pave the way for solar-powered orbital data centers that passively radiate excess heat into space. Developed in partnership with Caltech, Sophia\u2019s architecture tackles a major [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[130,2567,4374,4353,4869,20,442,4381],"class_list":["post-46476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-caltech","tag-data-centers","tag-orbital-data-center","tag-patent","tag-satellite","tag-satellites","tag-sophia-space"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46476"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46476\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}