Google and Virgin Group have just signed a deal in order to launch Virgle Inc., a joint venture supposed to help the two companies reach an incredible goal: establish and maintain human communities on Mars. According to a press release rolled out by Google, the Virgle plan starts with the Virgle Pioneer selection, expected to take place between 2008 and 2010, the first journey being scheduled for 2016. Moreover, the two companies want to establish the first Martian municipality, namely the Virgle City, in 2050 and reach a 100,000 population in 2108.

"Virgle is the ultimate application of a principle we've always believed at Google: that you can do well by doing good," said Google co-founder Larry Page. "We feel that ensuring the survival of the human race by helping it colonize a new planet is both a moral good in and of itself and also the most likely method of ensuring the survival of our best - okay, fine, only - base of web search volume and advertising inventory."

In case you didn't get it, the name of the city is a combination of Virgin and Google, obviously meant to underline the fact that the first human colony on Mars would have been established and maintained with the help of two of Earth's giants.

"Some people call Virgle an 'interplanetary Noah's Ark,'" said Virgin Group President and Founder Sir Richard Branson, who conceived the new venture. "I'm one of them. It's a potentially remarkable business, but more than that, it's a glorious adventure. For me, Virgle evokes the spirit of explorers such as Christopher Columbus and Marco Polo, who set sail looking for the New World. I do hope we'll be a bit more efficient about actually finding it, though."

Now that we're going to have a human colony on Mars, all we need is a Larry Page hologram (because the Google co-founder really wants to be the governor of Virgle City), non-virgin women and a lot of sex appetite to reach the 100,000 population by 2108. Count on me, Google, I'd love such a planet!