I think the name sells the concept, eh?  It is naturally a project under the partnership of Google and Virgin companies (owned by Sir Richard Branson).  I’m a bit impressed that Branson has even made a post on Google’s official blog. Yeah, it must be a ghost writer, but who knows!

Let me give you the blurb by Branson:

“Virgle’s goal is simple: the establishment of a permanent human settlement on Mars. Larry Page, Sergey Brin and I feel strongly that contemporary technology is sufficiently advanced to make such an effort both successful and economical, and that it’s high time that humanity moved beyond Earth and began our great, long journey to explore the stars and establish our first lasting foothold on another world.”

This is very typical of visionaries, I know it is years, decades or generations before this may even come to pass.  Branson is being himself, he wanted his DNA on anything branded as “near impossible”. He’s on his way to creating a new tourist spot via a plane prototype to propel the rich and famous for a 2-hour weightless escapade in “almost space”.

I remembered him give an interview on TED Talks months ago, my boss actually said Branson was his hero.  I’ve grown to believe him too.  Grown because I thought he was a joke, a big joke, specially after the F.R.I.E.N.D.S. cameo role.  But he’s driving his stake hard and deep. 

He may be nailed to a stake now and people shouting “witch” all around him.  But as time evolves, he’s making sense.

More blurbs by Branson (I dare you to shout WITCH):

“In the years to come, we’ll be sending up a series of spaceships carrying (along with the supplies and tools needed to build the new colony) what eventually will be hundreds of Mars colonists, or Virgle Pioneers — myself among them. If you think you might want join us (or invest in or otherwise assist this vast venture), I hope you’ll read more here about how Virgle will work, what our brave Pioneers can expect and what the future holds for what just might be the most ambitious adventure in mankind’s long and storied history.

See you on the north side of Kasei Valles! “

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