Earth’s first orbiting space hotel is now gearing up to open its vacuum-sealed doors within the next few years. The “Galactic Suite” will allow guests to orbit around the world in an impressive 80 minutes with a striking view of planet Earth.
During a three-day stay, guests will enjoy a beautiful sunrise 45 times! In order to maneuver around the suite in zero gravity, guests will wear Velcro-laced space attire that will allow them to stick to the walls of their accommodations like Spiderman.
Company director Xavier Claramunt says the three-bedroom boutique hotel will be a linked pod structure, which makes it look like a giant molecule. The design is not only fittingly futuristic, but necessitated by the fact that each pod room had to fit inside a rocket to be taken into space.
“It’s the bathrooms in zero gravity that are the biggest challenge,” says Claramunt. “How to accommodate the more intimate activities of the guests is not easy.”
However, some of the solutions they have come up with sound like fun. For example, when they’d like to take a bath, guests will enter a spa room full of floating bubbles of water. But a stay at this space hotel will involve more than just fun and relaxation—guests will also take part in scientific experiments that could provide valuable information about the possibilities for the future of space travel.
But it’s not just the space exploration and tourism industries getting ready for the future. Fashion designer Eri Matsui, for example has already begun designing clothing—including a wedding gown—intended to look best in weightless environments! As the space travel industry grows, other industries will likely get on board for the ride.
Galactic Suite began as just a hobby for former aerospace engineer Claramunt, but things got serious when an unidentified space enthusiast decided to front the majority of the $3 billion needed to build an actual space hotel.
Actually, there are many people interested in these types of ventures, and not just for the profit potential. For some, a space hotel represents a big step towards sustainable space colonies. Virgin’s Richard Branson, for example, has expressed his hope for the construction of a space hotel would begin in his lifetime, and now that wish is coming true. An American company, which hopes to see the colonization of Mars—and sees Galaxy Suite as a progressive move towards that goal—has since come on board. Several private investors from Japan, the United States and the United Arab Emirates are also coming forward.
Claramunt admits that the accommodations for the hotel service will be the highest rates in the galaxy. The Galactic Suite experience will include three nights in space along with eight weeks of intensive training at a luxurious James Bond-style space camp on an unnamed tropical island prior to launching. The price tag for the total package is about 4 million dollars. That’s certainly an expensive vacation, but Claramunt says there are a substantial number of people that could afford the stay.
“We have calculated that there are 40,000 people in the world who could afford to stay at the hotel. Whether they will want to spend money on going into space, we just don’t know.”
While it would certainly be an adventurous holiday—it may be too thrilling for some. Clarmunt foresees the need for people to become more accustomed to the idea of vacationing off of the planet, before space hotels will really “take off”.
“There is fear associated with going into space,” said Claramunt. “That’s why the shuttle rocket will remain fixed to the space hotel for the duration of the guests’ stay, so they know they can get home again.”
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