Sophia Space raises $10M seed to demo novel space computers

Sophia Space has secured $10 million in seed funding from investors including Alpha Funds, KDDI Green Partners Fund, and Unlock Venture Partners to develop and demonstrate a novel approach to cooling high-powered space-based processors. Unlike traditional satellite designs that rely on large radiators for thermal management, Sophia Space’s technology leverages a thin, flexible, sail-like structure originally developed for orbital solar power plants at Caltech. This design enables passive heat dissipation through conduction by placing processors against a passive heat spreader, eliminating the need for active cooling and allowing about 92% of generated power to be used for processing. The company plans to validate this technology on the ground before deploying it in orbit via a satellite bus from Apex Space by late 2027 or early 2028. Sophia Space’s modular server racks, called TILES, measure one meter square and a few centimeters deep, integrating solar panels with computing hardware. The firm envisions scaling up to large space data centers by the 2030