Von Braun Space Station will be the "cruise ship in the stars" – Hospitality Net

The first commercial hotel will look more like a cruise ship than the elegant Stanley Kubrick space station from 2001, said Tim Alatorre, principal design architect for the Von Braun space station.

The Gateway Foundation is designing the world's first space hotel – the Von Braun space station – to make the space accessible for everyone.

There will be kitchens, bars and interiors running entirely with natural materials and colors.

"In the end, going into space will be just another option that people will choose for their vacation, like for a cruise or going to Disney World," said Alatorre at Dezeen.

"The goal of the Gateway Foundation is to make the Von Braun operational by 2025 with 100 tourists visiting the station a week," he continued.

"Given that the overall costs are still so high, most people think that space tourism will only be available to the super-rich, and although I think this will be true for the next few years, the Gateway Foundation is objective of making space travel accessible to all people. "

The Von Braun Space Station will support the technology used by the current International Space Station (ISS). However, unlike its predecessor, the space hotel will have an artificial gravity, which will make homes much more comfortable and long-term.

The design is based on the concepts developed in the 1950s by Wernher von Braun – who gave his name to the hotel.

The station will consist of a wheel 190 meters in diameter that will pivot to create a gravitational force similar to that felt on the moon. Twenty-four individual modules will be built around the wheel, with accommodation and other support functions.

"There will also be many things you will see on cruise ships: restaurants, bars, music concerts, film screenings and educational seminars," Alatorre explained.

Some modules will be sold as private residences, while others will be rented to governments for scientific purposes. In total, the Gateway Foundation expects the station to have about 400 people.

The Gateway Foundation hopes that the visits to the space hotel will be comfortable and decide to reject the refined futuristic interiors often seen in films in favor of a more familiar setting.

"In the 2001 film Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrick's Space Station 5 is a sterile, white, museum-like hotel," said Alatorre.

"Although this has created a clearly futuristic feeling in the film, in reality it was not a very attractive space.As human beings, we naturally connect to natural materials and colors."

The interiors will use natural materials to offer visitors to this hotel a comfortable and friendly experience.

"Advances in materials science now make it possible to replace stone and wood with lightweight, easily cleanable natural materials that would normally be impossible to put into orbit," said Alatorre.

"The use of warm colored fabrics, colors and lighting, as well as textured materials, helps us connect and feel at home, and as the station will have gravity, there will be a sense of direction. and an orientation that is not present in the ISS. "

Source