If you like to take vacations in remote places to enjoy peaceful introspection, there may be a new option that is a step beyond any wilderness or tropical retreat. Space hotels have been the domain of science fiction for many years, but it looks like they could soon become a reality.
NASA officials have stated that they plan to open the International Space Station to the general public, and it could happen as early as 2020. Also, a company based in Houston called Orion Span is working on a space hotel that they will call Aurora Station, and it is slated to open in 2022. This hotel will accommodate four guests.
Another startup organization, the Gateway Foundation, is planning to build a space cruise ship that could house up to 100 guests and up to 300 crew members. This ambitious facility would have a variety of amenities such as gyms, restaurants, sports arenas and concert halls. It would also have shuttlecraft that could send guests back to Earth in case of dire need.
This large undertaking by the foundation is going to be called the Von Braun Rotating Space Station. It is named after the head of NASA during the 1950s who envisioned a large rotating space station. The foundation believes the project could be completed by 2027 or soon afterward. The senior design architect of the project, Tim Alatorre, notes that efforts to make space travel available to private citizens have been lacking since space exploration began in the 1950s. He believes that the efforts of his team will change the way the public thinks about tourism and vacationing in space.
Some scientists believe that the era of space hotels and tourism is bound to become a reality in the near future. One such advocate is Wolfgang Fink, professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Arizona. He has stated that he is convinced that space hotels are going to become a reality soon. However, he believes that the estimates for completion of these projects are overly ambitious, and it is not likely to be available to the public until 2030 or later.
It is not known how much it will cost to build the large rotating space station, but the Gateway Foundation has stated that a vacation on the facility would cost over $9 million. A single night fee would be $35,000, but the transportation cost would cost millions of dollars. They hope that the cost of space vacations will eventually become comparable to that of international trips on Earth.
