Google sneaked in a curious line on their homepage today: “Space is the key to a rosier future. Become a Virgle Pioneer.”

The site details Google’s partnership with Virgin, which recently unveiled their SpaceShipTwo design, to build a colony on Mars because “Earth has issues, and it’s time humanity got started on a Plan B.” The main page continues:

So, starting in 2014, Virgin founder Richard Branson and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin will be leading hundreds of users on one of the grandest adventures in human history: Project Virgle, the first permanent human colony on Mars.

In its ambitious 100-year plan, which any “Virgle pioneers” can apply to become a part of, the partnership intends to terraform the Red Planet into a paradise by 2108.

***** WARNING: POTENTIAL SPOILER BELOW *****

But clicking the “Is this real?” in the frequently asked questions (FAQ) section reveals the truth!

— oh, all right. Fine. April Fool’s. Ha, ha, ha. It isn’t real. There. Are you happy? Does it please you to drag us out of our lovely little fantasy world, to crush all our hopes and dreams? Is that really what you need to hear? Fine, you’ve heard it. Virgle isn’t real.

Yet.

In reality, sending people to Mars really might be a lovely little fantasy, because new reports show radiation beyond the protective magnetic field of Earth is a real killer.

Still, there are many who think we can get there — we just need research into the risks of interplanetary space travel and methods to make it safer.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 at 9:47 am and is filed under Space & Astronomy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.