A journey to the outer space will no longer be limited to just astronauts. Moving beyond the plot of a sci-fi film, people can now plan a vacation outside the Earth as world’s first space hotel will soon be a reality. And by 2027, space enthusiasts can literally have an out-of-the-world experience as the interstellar resort will be operational.
Orbital Assembly Corporation (OAC), the company behind the ambitious project, recently unveiled new details about the resort, and the images and videos have created a huge buzz online. The one-of-its-kind luxury hotel named Voyager Station will be able to accommodate 400 people and will offer unprecedented views of our planet for tourists and researchers.
World's first space HOTEL to begin construction in low Earth orbit in 2025 complete with restaurants, cinemas and rooms for up to 400 guests … let’s go @DougonIPComm 😝
https://t.co/UMQY4JZVHg #space #travel pic.twitter.com/6GI1rsvDh1— Evan Kirstel (@EvanKirstel) March 1, 2021
From the first look, the hotel — which is projected to be the first commercial space station operating with artificial gravity — resembles a giant wheel rotating outside the planet. “Voyager Station is a rotating space station designed to produce varying levels of artificial gravity by increasing or decreasing the rate of rotation. Artificial, or simulated, gravity is essential to long term habitation in space,” the official website explains.
According to the hotel’s website, this has been designed to merge business with pleasure. It will not only accommodate national space agencies conducting low gravity research but also space tourists who want to experience life on space station “with the comfort of low gravity and the feel of a luxury hotel”. However, it stresses that only a selected few can have this lifetime experience, and a trip to space “cost up to $25 million”.
The station will have a Habitation Ring, where a series of large, connected, pressurised modules will be placed. Modules will come in a variety, where privately owned modules will be used for villas, hotels, commercial activity and government-owned modules will be for scientific research, training, and staging facilities.
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So, what all can people expect when visiting this luxury hotel? Well, other than spectacular views, people are not expected to fly around in spacesuits like astronauts living in International Space Station (ISS). Here, thanks to simulated gravity, people can enjoy amenities like “toilet facilities, showers, and beds that function similar to what you are used to on Earth.”
From high-end restaurants and bars to gyms and activity centers, the station is supposed to have it all. In fact, the Gymnasium and Activity (GA) module “will transform into a concert venue where the biggest musicians on Earth will rock the station as it circles the planet”, the website advertised.
The concept of Voyager Station was ideated in 2012 with the launch of the Gateway Foundation which established OAC in 2018 to realise the dream of building the first commercial hotel in space.
“This will be the next industrial revolution,” John Blincow, the founder of the Gateway Foundation, said. While he noted that this will innovate the space industry like never before, there are also formalities that still need to be worked out — mainly the gravity aspect of travel.
Source: Indian Express
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