谷歌簽約租用Nasa莫菲特機場60年

Google has taken a 60-year lease on a Nasa airfield next to its Silicon Valley headquarters as it pushes deeper into researching areas like space exploration and vehicles capable of navigating other planets.

谷歌(Google)簽署了一份租用其硅谷總部旁邊一個美國國家航空航天局(Nasa)下屬機場60年的合約。谷歌正深入許多研究領域，比如太空探索和能飛行至其他行星的飛行器。

The lease includes a commitment to spend $200m on the facilities at the Moffett airfield, including renovating a gigantic, historic airship hangar that has become a prominent local landmark.

這份租約的內容包括，承諾對莫菲特(Moffett)機場的設施投資2億美元，比如要對一個體積巨大、具有歷史意義的飛機庫進行翻新。該飛機庫已成爲當地一處著名地標。

Google’s founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, along with chairman Eric Schmidt, have had an agreement with Nasa for some time to use the airfield as a base for their private jets.

谷歌創始人拉里•佩奇(Larry Page)和塞吉•布林(Sergey Brin)，以及董事長埃裏克•施密特(Eric Schmidt)，此前已同Nasa簽訂了一份協議，在一段時間內使用莫菲特作爲他們私人飛機的基地。

The space agency rejected an offer to pay for the renovation of Moffett’s Hangar One, which stands some 200 feet high, in return for allowing Google executives to house their planes in the building, opting instead to run a competitive tender for facilities last year.

此前Nasa拒絕了谷歌支付翻新莫菲特機場一號飛機庫的費用的提議，但允許谷歌高管將私人飛機停靠在該機場，並在去年提出對機場設施翻新項目進行招標。

Announcing a deal with Google on Monday, Nasa said the Moffett facilities would be used for “research, development, assembly and testing in the areas of space exploration, aviation, rover/robotics and other emerging technologies”.

Nasa週一宣佈與谷歌達成租約時表示，莫菲特機場設施將被用於“太空探索、航空、月球車/機器人等新興科技領域的研究、開發、裝配和試驗。”

Google has not disclosed any plans of its own to engage in interplanetary exploration, though it has offered a $20m prize for any private mission before the end of next year that can land a robot on the moon, travel 500 meters and send back images.

谷歌沒有披露自己參與星際探索的任何計劃，但設立了2000萬美元獎項，用於獎勵在明年底之前實現機器人登陸月球、行走500米併發回圖像的任何民間項目。

The lease will bring in $1.16bn in rents over its 60-year life and save $6.3m a year in operating costs, Nasa said on Monday. The agency and a Google real estate subsidiary called Planetary Resources first reached a tentative deal for the airfield in February, though terms were not disclosed at the time.

Nasa週一表示，這份租約將在60年內帶來11.6億美元租金收入，每年節省運行成本達630萬美元。今年2月，Nasa首先與谷歌的房地產業務子公司行星資源(Planetary Resources)達成了一項租用莫菲特機場的初步協議，不過當時沒有披露協議條款。

Sitting alongside Google’s headquarters, Moffett has already become a focus of the company’s attention as it outgrows its campus and spreads into nearby neighbourhoods in Mountain View and Palo Alto. Besides using it for the private planes of its top executives, Google has already agreed to lease part of the land to extend its facilities.

除了把莫菲特機場作爲谷歌頂級高管的私人飛機基地外，谷歌還將租用機場部分土地以擴建其設施。

The three hangars and the airstrip covered by the latest lease include 1,000 acres of land alongside San Francisco Bay, part of which is used as a private golf course.

最新租約涵蓋的三個飛機庫和跑道，包括舊金山灣(San Francisco Bay)沿岸的1000英畝土地。其中部分土地上目前坐落着一個私人高爾夫球場。