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For many people, getting away from it all means going to a cabin in the woods or to a house by the beach. Soon, another option could be considered: to visit a hotel in serene orbit above the planet.
Although space hotels have long belonged to the only imaginary world, this is about to change. NASA announced that it would open the International Space Station (ISS) to tourists by 2020. A Houston-based startup, Orion Span, has proposed a four-guest hotel called Aurora Station, which would open in 2022.
And now, the Gateway Foundation, a start-up based in Alta Loma, California, is preparing what could be the most ambitious space hotel project of all: a sort of space-based cruise ship capable of containing two hotels that can accommodate 100 guests and more. maybe three times more crew members. The facilities would have an artificial gravitation and would have restaurants, gyms, concert halls and concerts, as well as space planes ready to bring their guests back to Earth in case of emergency .
Normal vacation option
The foundation calls its planned installation the rotating Space Station Von Braun, in tribute to Wernher von Braun, a Nazi rocket scientist who left Germany in the aftermath of the Second World War to become one of the leading architects of the Apollo program of The NASA. Von Braun popularized the idea of a wheel-shaped space station in the 1950s.
The foundation's goal is to assemble the facility in orbit by 2025 and open it to visitors in 2027 or soon thereafter, said Tim Alatorre, the foundation's lead design architect. "Historically, there has not been much movement to bring the average person into space, and we are pushing for this to happen," he said. "In a few years we will all think that space is a normal vacation option."
Wolfgang Fink, an associate professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering at the College of Engineering at the University of Arizona at Tucson, said that space hotels were going to arrive. "I am absolutely convinced that it will happen," he says. "This is certainly not science fiction."
But the calendar can be too ambitious. "We are still far from being able to build these hotels and operate them in orbit," says Glenn Lightsey, professor of space technology at Georgia Tech College of Engineering in Atlanta. "It's coming and it's exciting. But it will take a little time to get there. Lightsey sees the opening of the first space hotels in the 2030s.
The details on how guests are getting to the space hotels are incomplete. The Gateway Foundation said it was discussing with SpaceX the use of its Starship vehicle, with guests leaving Florida. The duration of the trip is unclear, even though astronauts can reach the ISS in just six hours.
The Gateway Foundation did not specify the cost of a stay at the Von Braun station, but Orion Span says a 12-day stay on his Aurora station will cost $ 9.5 million, including transportation . NASA announced that its customers would spend $ 35,000 to spend a night aboard the ISS, which is not so bad as long as the transportation costs are not even higher.
The first group of space tourists – seven people who climbed from 2001 to 2009 – paid Russia more than $ 20 million each to fly and spend time aboard the ISS.
"The upfront costs will be quite high," says Alatorre. "Our goal is to reduce costs where you have a choice: you could save money and spend a week in Europe, or go into space."
The experience of the hotel space
What would the visit to Von Braun train station look like? The first stop for arriving guests would be the spacecraft dock located in the center of the wheel-shaped structure. From that moment on, guests used an elevator to get to the rooms on the outer ring, where regular rotation would be enough to simulate a gravity equal to one-sixth of that of the Earth's surface.
Artificial gravity means that guests can eat, exercise, shower and use the bathroom as they would on Earth. But as it will be much lower than gravity on Earth, customers will enjoy activities that would be impossible on land.
"We imagine very important basketball events where you run along the walls," explains Alatorre.
Artificial gravity is also a matter of safety, pleasure and convenience. Astronauts who have spent long periods of weightlessness have suffered from swelling, weakness, eye problems and other diseases.
The decor of the installation will look nothing like the sleek white furniture that is seen in many science-fiction movies taking place in space, said Alatorre, adding that he planned to create a warm atmosphere by using natural materials like cork and bamboo.
Most guests visiting Von Braun station would stay a week or two, while team members would probably spend six months in orbit before returning to Earth.
Security concerns
The ISS has shown that it is possible to build large structures in Earth orbit and that people can live there safely and in relative comfort for long periods of time. There are still some basic questions about the hotels in the space.
"The challenge is the human side: keeping the supply chain intact, providing breathable air and preserving life-sustaining conditions," says Lightsey, adding that he did not think such potential problems were insurmountable.
Fink draws attention to other potential concerns, including the risk to space hotels and their guests of space debris in orbit.
Astronauts accept the fact that even a tiny debris could cause serious damage to a spaceship, but the risk faced by guests at a space hotel would accept or should accept. Alatorre says that, like the ISS, the Braun station would have a shield and could be avoided from the path of large debris. In the event of a breach, emergency walls would isolate the damaged area.
In the end, says Lightsey, a visit to a space hotel could be a bit like a visit to a polar research station – another extreme environment now open to intrepid tourists.
"At first, it was only explorers and scientists, and now we have a city located primarily at McMurdo Station," he says, referring to the facility located on the island. 39, Ross Island off the coast of Antarctica. "Earth's orbit will be the same with time."
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