据拉玛·阿富洛（Rama Afullo）所述，他预见到了轨道数据中心的未来。这位肯尼亚裔美国工程师此前在谷歌（Google）的云计算部门工作，2024年短暂加入了SpaceX的Starlink通信项目。他的经历让他相信：在太空中，计算机仍有巨大的潜力尚未被开发出来。
The way Rama Afullo tells it, he saw orbital data centers coming. The Kenyan American engineer previously worked in Google’s cloud computing business before a brief stint at SpaceX’s Starlink communications network in 2024. His experiences convinced him that there was untapped potential for computers in space.
“我在SpaceX时曾试图向公司内部提出这个想法，但他们拒绝了；在谷歌时也尝试过，结果同样被否决，”他告诉TechCrunch。
“When I was at SpaceX, I tried to pitch this internally. They said no. When I was at Google, I tried to pitch this internally. They said no,” he tells TechCrunch.
因此，他离开了SpaceX，与合作伙伴共同创立了Satlyt这家总部位于加利福尼亚州森尼韦尔（Sunnyvale）和内罗毕（Nairobi）的公司，致力于开发用于卫星的软件，希望这些软件能让多颗卫星共同完成复杂的计算任务。阿富洛向TechCrunch透露，Satlyt已经完成了800万美元的种子轮融资。
So he left SpaceX and co-founded Satlyt, a new company with headquarters in Sunnyvale, California, and Nairobi, to build software for satellites that he hopes will let many satellites share the work of large computing jobs in space. The company has raised an $8 million seed round, Afullo exclusively told TechCrunch.
目前看来，时机非常有利：SpaceX已全面投入轨道数据中心的建设，而Satlyt的软件将于周四通过SpaceX的火箭发射升空，同时发射的还有谷歌“Project Suncatcher”太空数据中心的第一个原型。
The timing looks good for him.
与SpaceX、谷歌以及Starcloud、Cowboy Space Company等初创公司不同，Satlyt并不打算自行制造航天器。阿富洛的团队专注于开发能够在卫星上运行人工智能模型的软件；他的这种做法类似于VMWare和Snowflake——这些公司的平台让用户能够无需关心底层基础设施，就能运行复杂的软件。
SpaceX has since gone all-in on orbital data centers, and Satlyt’s software is set to launch Thursday on a SpaceX rocket alongside the first prototype for Google’s space data center effort, Project Suncatcher. Unlike SpaceX, Google, or startups like Starcloud and Cowboy Space Company, Satlyt isn’t planning to build its own spacecraft.
“像SpaceX这样的公司如果代表着‘iPhone’的话，那么我们Satlyt则希望构建一个‘Android’式的、高度集成且开放的生态系统，”他说。换句话说，Satlyt的目标是提供能够在多家公司的卫星上使用的通用软件。
Afullo’s team is building the software to operate AI models on satellites, comparing his approach to VMWare and Snowflake—companies whose platforms let users run complex software without worrying about the underlying infrastructure. “The folks like SpaceX who are doing orbital data centers—if they are the iPhone, we’ll build Android as a horizontally integrated, open ecosystem,” he said.
Satlyt 已经将其软件应用于两次演示任务中。其最初的重点是提高航天器的运行效率，因为航天器通常依赖地面飞行控制人员来解决出现的问题。将数据传回地球（即下行链路）不仅成本高昂，而且速度往往很慢，因此利用人工智能在航天器上进行决策可以实现真正的成本节约，无论是在解决异常情况时，还是在航天器上直接处理传感器读数而非传回地面处理时。
In other words, Satlyt wants to offer software that works across many companies’ satellites. Satlyt has already flown its software on two demonstration missions. The initial focus is finding operational efficiencies for spacecraft, which typically depend on flight controllers on the ground to solve any problems that arise.
今年早些时候，Satlyt 在 Momentus 公司运营的一颗航天器上部署了谷歌 DeepMind 的 Gemma 人工智能模型。该模型将有关机载软件错误的传输数据量减少了 60% 以上，Afullo 表示，这种效率提升每年可为每颗卫星节省数十万美元。
Sending data back to Earth, known as downlink, is expensive and often slow, so using AI to make decisions on the spacecraft can mean real savings, either when resolving anomalies or by processing sensor readings on the spacecraft instead of on the ground. Earlier this year, Satlyt deployed Google DeepMind’s Gemma AI model onboard a spacecraft operated by Momentus.
本周的发射任务将把 Satlyt 的软件应用于由 TakeMe2Space 制造的航天器上，这是一家为卫星制造计算硬件的印度初创公司。该任务涉及三家客户：美国国家航空航天局（NASA），该公司正付费测试太空云计算协议；专注于太空监视（跟踪轨道物体）并希望测试图像处理工作负载的初创公司 Stellerian；以及 TakeMe2Space 本身，旨在展示该卫星能够托管其他公司的软件。
The model cut the size of a transmission about onboard software errors by more than 60%, the kind of efficiency that Afullo says can save hundreds of thousands of dollars per satellite each year. This week’s launch will put Satlyt’s software to work onboard a spacecraft built by TakeMe2Space, an Indian startup that builds computing hardware for satellites.
目前，轨道上高性能 GPU 的数量还很少。就目前而言，最可能的机遇在于 Satlyt 正在从事的这类工作负载。但该公司的下一个项目是展示其能够创建一个跨越两颗不同卫星的共享计算系统——即“云”，并计划于明年进行尝试。如果成功，这将使该公司能够作为第三方提供商，为航天器制造商在轨道上构建真正的计算云。
The mission involves three customers: NASA, which is paying the company to test protocols for cloud computing in space; Stellerian, a start-up focused on space surveillance (tracking objects in orbit) that wants to test image processing workloads; and TakeMe2Space itself, to show the satellite can host other companies’ software. Right now, few high-powered GPUs are in orbit. For now, the most likely opportunity lies in the kinds of workloads Satlyt is working on. But the company’s next project is to show that it can create a shared computing system—a cloud—spanning two different satellites, which it expects to attempt next year.
“你可以这样理解，我们将你的卫星变成了一种能够产生收入的托管服务，”Afullo 说道。
If successful, it will allow the company to build a true compute cloud in orbit as a third-party provider to spacecraft builders.
Satlyt的种子轮融资由总部位于休斯顿的Non Sibi Ventures领投。该公司合伙人伯纳德·哈里斯（Bernard Harris）曾担任NASA宇航员超过20年，他帮助公司确立了对这一新型太空商业模式的信心。
The way to think about it is that we turn your satellite into a revenue-generating managed service,” Afullo said. Satlyt’s seed round was led by Houston-based Non Sibi Ventures, where partner Bernard Harris, who served as a NASA astronaut for more than 20 years, helped ground the firm’s conviction in a novel, space-based business.
该公司投资的原因之一是，Satlyt并不依赖于对太空数据中心最宏大的愿景，而该愿景面临着不确定的经济效益和发射瓶颈。“我们不需要在太空中建设数据中心，Rama就能取得巨大成功，对吧？”Non Sibi合伙人肯特·卢卡斯（Kent Lucas）告诉TechCrunch。“它的成功可以仅仅由发射的卫星数量来驱动。”阿富洛（Afullo）希望到本十年末，其服务能覆盖20%的卫星，届时他预计几乎所有航天器制造商都会在卫星中搭载GPU及类似的先进处理器。
One reason the firm invested was that Satlyt doesn’t depend on highest-octane vision of space data centers, which faces uncertain economics and a launch bottleneck. “We don’t need data centers in space for Rama to be wildly successful, right?”Non Sibi partner Kent Lucas told TechCrunch. “It can just be driven by the number of satellites going up.”Afullo’s hope is to be live on 20% of satellites by the end of the decade, when he expects virtually every spacecraft builder to be putting GPUs and similar advanced processors in their satellites.
他说：“如果你发射卫星却不搭载GPU，至少是在损害自己的利益，对吧？”
“If you’re putting up a satellite without putting up a GPU on it, at the very least, you’re doing yourself a disservice, right?” he says.