Web search company Google said it plans to partner with US space agency Nasa on space research and to build a new campus at the agency's research centre in Silicon Valley.
Google and Nasa said they plan to co-operate on research projects in the areas of large-scale data management, nanotechnology, massively distributed computing and the entrepreneurial space industry.
Massively distributed computing aims to harness via the Internet the power of thousands or millions of PCs while their volunteer owners are not using them, putting it to work on large-scale research projects such as health or space exploration.
The deal calls for Google to develop up to one million square feet of real estate within the Nasa Research Park at Moffett Field, a former naval air base that is surrounded by thousands of high-tech companies in the heart of Silicon Valley.
The total acreage is roughly double the size of Google's current headquarters in the adjoining town of Mountain View, California.
Nasa said examples of the sorts of projects envisioned under the partnership include new types of remote sensors and improved analysis of engineering problems.