MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., 5 June 2008. NASA and Google Inc. will develop a high-technology campus at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif.
Under the terms of the 40-year agreement, Google will lease 42.2 acres of unimproved land in NASA Research Park at Ames to construct up to 1.2 million square feet of offices and research and development facilities.
Under the terms of the lease, Google will pay NASA an initial base rent of $3.66 million per year.
The announcement is the latest in a series of collaborations dating back to September 2005, when NASA and Google announced plans to work together on technology-focused R&D activities. NASA and Google signed a memorandum of understanding that year, launching negotiations for this development in NASA Research Park.
Since signing the memorandum of understanding in 2005, NASA and Google have begun collaboration on several joint projects. The Planetary Content project develops software that makes it easier for the science community to publish planetary data via the Internet. This project has already provided high-resolution lunar imagery and maps to the Google Moon program and resulted in the "NASA" layer in Google Earth.
Similarly, the Global Connection project enhances the "National Geographic" layer in Google Earth by embedding geo-referenced stories and images from around the world. The Disaster Response project develops prototype software tools to help improve first response to large-scale natural disasters.
