An out-of-this-world hotel is only a few years away from becoming a reality.
This decade will see the start and completion of the construction of humanity’s first hotel in outer space, according to the group behind it, Orbital Assembly.
The 3-year-old company plans to start building the Voyager Station in low Earth orbit in 2025 and believes that its interstellar resort could be operational by 2027, the Daily Mail reported.
The representations of the celestial hotel are cosmic-chic: individual capsules are attached to a rotating wheel, with tubes connecting the different areas forming an X, as if the axis of the wheel.
Guests will not only pay for the novelty of the environment – there will be a number of facilities on board, including themed restaurants, spa, cinema, gyms, libraries, concert halls, Earth observation rooms and bars, as well as rooms for 400 people. Needs including crew accommodation, air, water and energy will also occupy part of the ship.
Orbital Assembly also hopes to sell parts of the hotel to permanent stakeholders, including government agencies looking to use the space as a training center or owners who want to create a villa on board the ship.
It will circle the globe every 90 minutes, and the rotation of the circle will generate artificial gravity similar to that of the moon. No construction costs were revealed.
“This will be the next industrial revolution,” said John Blincow, the founder of the Gateway Foundation, which will run some of Voyager’s pods, according to the Daily Mail. The rotation aspect is “vital”, he added. Without gravity, people cannot stay on a space station for an extended period of time; Orbital’s goal is to make it possible to stay on Voyager for several months.
“People need gravity to keep their bodies from disintegrating,” explained Blincow.
A robot by the name of STAR (Structure Trust Assembly Robot) is set to build the Voyager structure in orbit as soon as the company completes some gravity-related tests.
