The thought of boarding a rocket to whisk you off to outer-space for your next hotel stay seems like something you’d see in a movie, doesn’t it? It’s not though because expected in 2012, a hotel called “Galactic Suite” will be the first orbiting hotel. The $3 billion that it will cost to build the hotel has been paid for, mostly by a former aerospace engineer. Guests who travel to the hotel will wear “velcro suits to “crawl” around pod-like rooms so that they can stick themselves to the wall — Spiderman style.”
Any space trip isn’t cheap, and this is no exception. For $4 million dollars you’ll get a three-day stay in which you’ll see the sun rise each day 15 times. The director of the company, Xavier Claramunt says they know that there are at least 40,000 people in the world who could afford the $4 million price for the three-day stay. The hotel would consist of at least three pod-shaped rooms, and Claramunt says the biggest challenge thus far has been designing a bathroom. At this point they believe they have solved the shower problem by designing a “spa room” with floating bubbles of water.
I don’t know about you, but I simply can’t imagine planning my next vacation for a trip to space. The cost not only includes the trip into space and the stay at the hotel, it also covers “eight weeks of intensive training at a James Bond-style space camp on a tropical island.” Even if I had $4 million dollars that I didn’t know what to do with, I still don’t think I’d spend it on a hotel stay in space. Claramunt talked about the fear that many people would have of going into space, but not to worry, “That’s why the shuttle rocket will remain fixed to the space hotel for the duration of the guests’ stay, so they know they can get home again.”
Source: Reuters
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Tags: General
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Somehow I doubt that will be up by 2012, or even 2050!
I’m surprised how much play this story is getting considering how little evidence there is that this is little more than someone’s joke design project for fun. Especially when there is another, more legitimate company like Bigelow Aerospace that also intends on having a private space station by 2012 but can back that up with TWO test modules actually in space and actually has a manufacturing facility.
I mean, the reporter takes their word for it when they say some American who they can’t name is giving them $3 billion. I figure I could got to the same reporter and say someone is giving me a couple billion to build the world’s biggest saussage and it will make the headlines the next day.
Not sure how much competition to Bigelow they really are, and I also have doubts about their $3 billion funding figure. I think we need more proof than their word.
Bigelow has:
- A manufacturing plans currently building the modules for its stations
- A corporate structure
- Two test modules currently in space
- A concrete business plan
- More than 100 employees
Galactic Suite has:
- A Web site with nice illustrations. Though its strange title font looks like it was done in Microsoft Paint.
This seems like little more than a nice Web site and fancy illustrations. Galactic Suite also seems to indicate it would use the Space Shuttle for construction, which would be news to NASA, which plans to put the orbiters in the Smithsonian by 2010.
Seems like more vaporware to me. I’d rather put my money on Bigelow to build the first private space station.
Bigelow put up some cool, REAL pictures from space on this page: http://bigelowaerospace.com/ou.....photos.php.
I think advancements like this are often under estimated. By this time aren’t we supposed to have robots cleaning our house or something?
I too am doubtful for several reasons. I also find it hard that there will be enough people that want to spend $4 million for their hotel stay in space.