It's a logical question to ask. Google's current engineering facilities in the United States, India and Switzerland are all leaders in search technology development. However, by locating a research and technology center on the Moon, Google engineers will be able to experiment with an entirely different set of parameters. For example, imagine tapping unlimited solar energy to drive megawatt data centers and power innumerable arrays of massively parallel lava lamps, with ample no-cost cooling available to regulate the temperature of server farms sprawling over acres of land unblighted by sentient lifeforms or restrictive zoning ordinances.

Moreover, Google's Copernicus Center will provide a clear ear on the chatter of the universe, the vast web of electromagnetic pulses that may contain signals from intelligent life forms in other galaxies, as well as a complete record of every radio or television signal broadcast from our own planet. Google's goal is to extract information from that cacophonous web and make it available to anyone with a mouse and a modem. Imagine discovering not only alien attempts at communication with Earth, but also such heretofore unavailable cultural treasures as Pink Floyd's 1968 appearance on the BBC and the tragically lost first season of "Iron Chef."

With the establishment of the Copernicus Center, Google's mission has grown beyond "organizing the world's information and making it universally accessible and useful." Our new goal is to "organize all the useful information in the universe and serve it to you on a lightly salted cracker."