Facebook is working on drones, satellites and lasers to deliver the internet to far-flung corners of the world, in its second big bet on future technology in a week.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and chief executive, said the company was working with leading experts from Nasa and acquiring a team from Ascenta, a five-person UK-based company whose founders helped create an early version of a solar-powered unmanned aircraft.

The Ascenta team, based in Somerset in England, will stay in the UK. In a short unsigned post on the site the group wrote about forming a “special partnership” with Facebook built on a “shared vision” of connecting developing countries.