The burgeoning commercial space sector is also casting its gaze towards Earth's only naturalsatellite with companies considering everything from mining the lunar surface to building extraterrestrial resorts on it.
In other company news, 36 years after astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin strode upon the Earth's only naturalsatellite, Schmidt's firm has launched Google Moon: A mapping service that lets homo sapiens explore the lunar surface from their PCs.
Boice says the van can be outfitted to launch drones and create on-the-go cellphone and satellite signals in the aftermath of a natural disaster or terrorist attack.
The researchers hope to keep the data series, funded by the EU and the Natural Environmental Research Council (Nerc), running for as long as satellite-based measurements are available.
In addition, the company owns about 2.5% of Iridium, a satellite-telecoms venture led by Motorola, and shares in several lucrative natural-resource joint ventures with foreign firms.