NASA and Google have teamed up to build a large new research campus at the agency鈥檚 Ames Research Center in California, US.
The deal, outlined on Wednesday, means Google can develop up to 1 million square feet (93,000 square metres), about a quarter of a sprawling new technology centre. Ames is located just a few kilometres from Google鈥檚 headquarters in Mountain View, California.
The two institutions will cooperate on projects ranging from distributed computing, ways to manage large amounts of data, and the convergence of biology and nanotechnology. 鈥淕oogle and NASA share a common desire to bring a universe of information to people around the world,鈥� says Eric Schmidt, Google鈥檚 chief executive officer.
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Scott Hubbard, director of the Ames centre, says the partnership with the rapidly expanding Google will benefit the space programme. 鈥淛ust a few examples are new sensors and materials, improved analysis of engineering problems, as well as Earth, life and space science discoveries from supercomputing and data mining,鈥� he says.
Space imagery
Google will also gain from the alliance, as it will be able to access NASA鈥檚 vast databank of space imagery and scientific information. 鈥淚magine having a wide selection of images from the Apollo space mission at your fingertips whenever you want it,鈥� says Schmidt.
Google suggests it could add NASA data about temperature or crops to the satellite images it uses in its Google Maps and Google Earth applications. It is also considering producing maps of bodies beyond the Earth, such as the Moon and Mars.
The pact is the first of its kind between NASA and private industry. Keith Cowing, editor of the independent website NASA Watch, says the arrangement could help lessen the effects of the agency鈥檚 funding cuts. 鈥淚nstead of waving their arms around trying to grab NASA money that is evaporating, other field centres could do well to study what Ames Research Center has accomplished,鈥� he writes.
