Virgle

Virgle is a joint April Fools' Day prank engineered by Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page and the Virgin Group's Sir Richard Branson. The stated goal of the project is to establish the first permanent human colony Mars within the next 20 years. According to the hoax, Branson, Page and Brin, along with a number of volunteer "Pioneers," will set out for the red planet in hopes of setting up a thriving human community by the year 2108 in accordance with the five-stage "100 Year Plan."

1. Announced: April 1, 2008
2. Slogan: "The Adventure of Many Lifetimes"
3. Phases of The 100 Year Plan:
   1. 2010: Choosing a Site
   2. 2014: Low Earth Orbit
   3. 2015: Virgle Base 1
   4. 2016: Flying to Mars
   5. 2108: Virgle City

1. "You could win a coveted slot on the earliest, most uncomfortable and dangerously untested manned space flights to the new New World - or a fabulous prize!"
2. "All will be radically decentralized, non-hierarchical and, you know, perfect and cool and groundbreaking and innovative in every way."

• Google Groups: Project Virgle: Mission Control

• Eco Geek: Google Gives Up on Earth: Will Colonize Mars (April 1, 2008)

• Neatorama: Virgle: Branson and Google Colonizes Mars (April 1, 2008)

• Google Blog Search: Virgle

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