The US space agency NASA on Thursday unveiled its dream to set up billion-dollar multi-university campus comprised of major laboratories, classrooms and homes for 3,000 people at its Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California.

NASA reported that the project will be its joint venture with the University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC) and the Foothill-De Anza Community College District. The agency stated that it has signed a deal with the two Silicon Valley institutions to provide 75 acres of land of its California research compound.

According to the UC Santa Cruz, the new institution will be set up on a 75-acre campus within the 300-acre research park that NASA developed on the sprawling grounds of the Ames center in Moffett Field.
 
The UCSC Chancellor George Blumenthal stated that the goal of the project is to create a research and education village "dedicated to preparing the workforce of the future and conducting research at the forefront of science and technology”.

Joseph Miller, UC Santa Cruz vice provost reported that Santa Clara University, San Jose State and Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh are expected to get into the project, in the time to come as the venture matures.

NASA revealed that the students of its dream university campus will become future employees of NASA to help the space agency "achieve its exploration objectives”. The agency reported that it hopes to trigger the project that is expected to cost more than $1bn, by 2013.