This year Sir Richard Branson posted a story on the Google Blog announcing Virgle.

Virgle, Inc., a joint venture between the Virgin Group and Google. Virgle's goal the establishment of a permanent human settlement on Mars.

You can actually apply to become a Virgle Pioneer filling out a survey.

The Virgle 100 Year Plan's milestones will include Virgle Pioneer selection (2008-2010), the first manned journey to Mars (2016), a Virgle Inc. initial public offering to capitalize on the first manned journey to Mars (2016), the founding of the first permanent Martian municipality, Virgle City (2050), and the achievement of a truly self-sustaining Martian civilization with a population exceeding 100,000 (2108).

It would not be Google if there would not be an open Source Planet program as well.
Richard Branson also talks about Virgle personally in a video that can be seen below.
More details on the Virgle project page.



If you have not realized it yet, it is April Fools' Day. Google is known for announcing an elaborate hoax on April 1st.