14 February 2014

Google buys NASA hangar


Charlie Osborne has a SmartPlanet article about yet another Google mystery project:
Google has purchased an enormous aircraft hangar from NASA to become the research ground for the company's robotics division.
One of the tech giant's shell companies, Planetary Ventures, made the acquisition of Hangar One at Moffett Federal Airfield, only a few miles away from Google's Silicon Valley headquarters.
NASA is reportedly renting out the eight-acre hangar in order to cut costs, and Planetary Ventures plans to modernize some of the building, as well as add a public museum.
However, it isn't just Hangar One which has caught Google's eye. The company is also in talks with officials to potentially rent out other hangars, several runways, and adjacent buildings on the airfield. Google has confirmed that the space will be used to test and house new robots.
Over the past few months, the company has snapped up multiple robotics firms including artificial intelligence company DeepMind for four hundred million dollars, and Boston Dynamics, a supplier of military hardware and animal-based robots. In total, at least nine robotics firms have been purchased by Google over the last six months.
Rico says he used to marvel at the hangar when he lived in Palo Alto...

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