You have heard of the undersea hotel, crane hotel, cave hotel, ice hotel, and many more unique hotels. However, have you heard of the space hotel? Is it even possible? According to John Blincow, we are only a few years away from having one.
In 2012, John Blincow founded The Gateway Foundation as critical first steps to colonize space and other worlds. Six years later, The Gateway Foundation founded Orbital Assembly Corporation (OAC) to help make these dreams come true.
Early this year, OAC revealed its plan to open the world's first commercial space hotel in 2027 called The Voyager Station.
What Is The Voyager Station?
The Voyager Station aims to be the luxury space station for humans to have a vacation. The structure has over 11,600 m2 habitable space,big enough to accommodate up to 280 guests.
The Voyager Class of station, will be a rotating space station designed to produce varying artificial gravity levels by increasing or decreasing the rotation rate. The station will be designed from the start to accommodate both national space agencies conducting low gravity research and space tourists who want to experience life on a large space station with the comfort of low gravity and the feel of a nice hotel.
According to CNN's interview with OAC's senior design architect, "The station rotates, pushing the contents of the station out to the perimeter of the station, much in the way that you can spin a bucket of water - the water pushes out into the bucket and stays in place."
In other words, there's no artificial gravity near the centre of the station, but as you move down the outside of the station, the feeling of gravity increases.
The station's structure will have two concentric structural rings fixed together with a set of spokes supporting a Habitation Ring made-up of large modules:
The first ring is the inner ring called The Docking Hub. This is where a visiting spacecraft is going to unload passengers and cargo. One possibility for tourists to board the station is via SpaceX' Starship shuttle. Of course, they can only board the craft after they have completed safety and physical training.
The second ring is the outer ring truss which will be the backbone of the station. Below the second ring are a series of large, connected, pressurized modules called The Habitation Ring. Not only that it will be a place to stay, but it will also include entertainment hubs such as movie theatre, spa, gym and restaurants that serve traditional space food such as freeze-dried ice cream.
How Much Will The Space Hotel Cost?
The trip to the first space hotel is not going to be cheap. According to Blincow, a three-and-a-half-day trip will cost approximately $5 million. It may look like a lot, but it is considerably less expensive than the $55 million it costs for a private citizen to travel to the International Space Station. Blincow hopes that the price will eventually go down to be more accessible to the middle class.
If you are interested and the cost is not a problem, you can start making a reservation now.
