A doughnut-shaped orbiting hotel could be receiving guests in just a few years. If all goes to plan, the Von Braun Space Station, ‘the first commercial space construction’, should be in orbit by 2025 and would open its doors (well, kind of) to tourists in 2027. “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,” describes the project’s senior designer, Tim Alatorre.
The hotel, which will be called Voyager Station, will be 50,000 square metres in size and able to accommodate 440 guests. According to the Gateway Foundation, the Californian company behind this futuristic construction, “Going to space will just be another option people will pick for their vacation.” Perhaps. The price tag, for starters, is likely to make it out of most people’s reach. However, for some ambitious and curious voyagers, it’s likely to be the next step in exploration.
How will passengers get there, you may well ask. Space tourism is being developed by a handful of aerospace companies including Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin, Boeing and Elon Musks’s SpaceX.
Gateway Foundations’ goal is to provide excellent service and facilities, to match those of a luxury cruise ship. Gravity will be simulated, to keep guests comfortable; a rotating system will ensure space travellers are not floating all over the hotel: “The station rotates, pushing the contents of the station out to the perimeter of the station, much in the way that you spin a bucket of water. The water pushes out into the bucket and stays in place,” Alatorre explains.
On the one hand, the design team wants to make it feel earthly up there, with luxury bedroom suites, bars and restaurants, regular beds and showers. On the other hand, they will be serving space food and putting on activities that highlight the fact that they are in space. “Because of weightlessness and the reduced gravity,” adds Alatorre, “You’ll be able to jump higher, be able to lift things, be able to run in ways that you can’t on Earth.”
Alatorre’s ambition doesn’t stop with an extra-terrestrial hotel. One day, in the not too distant future, he hopes ‘to create a star-ship culture where people are going to space, and living in space, and working in space and they want to be in space’. Perhaps not everyone’s ambition, to live and work in space. But for some, this might be the new frontier in hybrid work arrangement. How futuristic.
Suggested Links:
Tim Alatorre Online (talatorre.com)
First space hotel set to open in 2027 (dezeen.com)
Space hotel will spin "slightly faster than a second hand" says its architect (dezeen.com)
The Von Braun Space Station — House of Engineering
World's first space hotel Voyager Station scheduled to open in 2027 | CNN Travel
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