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Following the movements (both real and anticipated) of Google has become a sport in and of itself. It’s an exciting company that never quite does what the industry expects it to, and this actually seems to be at least part of the secret behind its enormous success.

And this trend-bucking tendency has been in stronger evidence than ever in recent weeks, as the company has made a couple of eyebrow-raising announcements that may send it into the skies — or even beyond, into outer space!

First is the news that the company is looking to get into the wireless provider service game — via balloons. From the Wall Street Journal:

Space Data Corp. … launches 10 balloons a day across the Southern U.S., providing specialized telecom services to truckers and oil companies. [The] balloons soar 20 miles into the stratosphere, each carrying a shoebox-size payload of electronics that acts like a mini cellphone “tower” covering thousands of square miles below.

[The] idea has caught the eye of Google Inc., according to people familiar with the matter. The Internet giant — which is now pushing into wireless services — has considered contracting with Space Data or even buying the firm, according to one person.

… Expanding rural telecom services is a priority for regulators. About 36% of rural Americans don’t have Internet connections. The problem is that it’s expensive to string cable or build cellphone towers in areas with so few customers. Space Data says a single balloon can serve an area otherwise requiring 40 cell towers.

Maintaining a telecom system based on gas-filled bladders floating in the sky requires some creativity. The inexpensive balloons are good for only 24 hours or so before ultimately bursting in the thin air of the upper atmosphere. The electronic gear they carry, encased in a small Styrofoam box, then drifts gently back to earth on tiny parachutes.

This means Space Data must constantly send up new balloons. To do that, it hires mechanics employed at small airports across the South. It also hires farmers — particularly, dairy farmers.

… Google believes balloons like these could radically change the economics of offering cellphone and Internet services in out-of-the-way areas, according to people familiar with its thinking. The company is among the registered bidders for a big chunk of radio spectrum at a government auction currently under way in Washington.

But why stop there? Google doesn’t intend to. The company also recently made official their competition to award tens of millions of dollars to the first two teams to land a robot on the moon:

The return to the moon is part of the Google Lunar X Prize, a competition sponsored by Google with $30 million in prizes for the first two teams to land a robotic rover on the moon and send images and other data back home.

At Google’s headquarters here on Thursday, 10 teams from five countries announced their intention to participate in the competition.

… “This is about developing a new generation of technology that is cheaper, can be used more often and will enable a new wave of explorers,” said Peter H. Diamandis, chairman of the X Prize Foundation.

Addressing the X Prize teams and journalists, Sergey Brin, Google’s co-founder, compared his company’s support of the competition with other companies’ sponsorship of yacht races. “The idea we can help spur the return to the moon and maybe even do it more quickly than some of the national plans is really exciting to me,” Mr. Brin said.

Google will pay $20 million to the first team that lands on the moon, sends a package of data back to Earth, then travels at least 500 meters and sends another data package. The second team to accomplish the goals will win $5 million. Bonuses are offered for feats like visiting a historic landing site and finding and detecting lunar ice, but the prize money starts to shrink if the mission is not accomplished by 2012.

So what does Google have to gain from funding engineers to get back on the moon? The article uses the phrase, “jump-starting an age of space commerce,” which, to us, says it all.

Of course, there are a lot more details to both of these stories. Click here to read “Floating a New Idea For Going Wireless, Parachute Included” in the Wall Street Journal. Click here to read “A Google Competition, With a Robotic Moon Landing as a Goal” in the New York Times.