Space hotel 'on schedule to open in 2012'
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Galactic Suite
An artist's impression of the flight, displayed on Galactic Suite's website
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A company behind plans to open the first hotel in space says it is on target to accept its first paying guests in 2012 despite critics questioning the investment and time frame for the multi-billion dollar project.
The Barcelona-based architects of The Galactic Suite Space Resort say it will cost 3 million euro (£2.6 million) for a three-night stay at the hotel, with this price including an eight-week training course on a tropical island.
During their stay, guests would see the sun rise 15 times a day and travel around the world every 80 minutes. They would wear velcro suits so they can crawl around their pod rooms by sticking themselves to the walls like Spiderman.
Galactic Suite Ltd's CEO Xavier Claramunt, a former aerospace engineer, said the project will put his company (www.galacticsuite.com) at the forefront of an infant industry with a huge future ahead of it, and forecast space travel will become common in the future.
"It's very normal to think that your children, possibly within 15 years, could spend a weekend in space," he told Reuters Television.
A nascent space tourism industry is beginning to take shape with construction underway in New Mexico of Spaceport America, the world's first facility built specifically for space-bound commercial customers and fee-paying passengers.
British tycoon Richard Branson's space tours firm, Virgin Galactic, will use the facility to propel tourists into suborbital space at a cost of $200,000 (£123,000) a ride.
Galactic Suite Ltd, set up in 2007, hopes to start its project with a single pod in orbit 450 km (280 miles) above the earth, traveling at 30,000 km per hour, with the capacity to hold four guests and two astronaut-pilots.
It will take a day and a half to reach the pod - which Claramunt compared to a mountain retreat, with no staff to greet the traveler.
"When the passengers arrive in the rocket, they will join it for 3 days, rocket and capsule. With this we create in the tourist a confidence that he hasn't been abandoned. After 3 days the passenger returns to the transport rocket and returns to earth," he said.
More than 200 people have expressed an interest in traveling to the space hotel and at least 43 people have already reserved.
The numbers are similar for Virgin Galactic with 300 people already paid or signed up for the trip but unlike Branson, Galactic Suite say they will use Russian rockets to transport their guests into space from a spaceport to be built on an island in the Caribbean.
But critics have questioned the project, saying the time frame is unreasonable and also where the money is coming from to finance the project.
Claramunt said an anonymous billionaire space enthusiast has granted $3 billion (£1.8 billion) to finance the project.
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Comments
Isn't this just a little absurd? Spending three million dollars for a three day vacation there some sick human beings that need a value adjustment.
Or they could be nice and buy
Three million dollars worth of food
Three million dollars worth of medicine
Three million dollars worth of textbooks
Three million dollars worth of fresh water
Three million dollars worth of farming equipment
The list could go on and on for things that people are going out and are in need of.
from carbon emission indulgence aside, the dangers of an unexplored
outer space to humans[bear in mind that human kind does not even know
what sort of creatures lurk in the depths of the ocean],will result in insurance companies
not covering any of this grotesque adventures . it follows that mr branson will have to
insure holiday makers himself . better get a lawyer to read your terms and conditions on
the printed version of your ticket.and yes , there is that great mystery of some ex hippy
reaching for the stars ,while they are already there or have been. light is an illusion. and
so is the idea of having a holiday in the freezing conditions of space.
Shelter CHECK
Fire CHECK
Hunting Equipment CHECK
The short sightedness of some people in this comments section astounds me, space travel is going to be a big part of our future whether you like it or not. It will be a massive industry and will create millions of jobs.
If someone has money then it's theirs to spend how they please, peoples jealousy over those more fortunate is really quite pathetic.
it concerns itself with the fat cats splitting form the environmental
armageddon[which they caused,of course] the way they do it is by buying
junks of moon ,and shooting up payloads full of modern survival gadgets ,disguised
satellites, to establish this new order of adam and eve with loads of money ,that
does not mean a thing. the book raises the question of sorting out your own world before you
start racing into something, no one really is sure about. bye the way, i have met
mr bransons aunt ,and i assure that she is very down to earth ,as you should be.
,
Is there really anything to this company besides a nice flashy website?
Apparently they are going to do all the following by 2012:
- Build a spaceport on a tropical island (has construction even started yet?)
- Design and build a reliable spaceplane
- Design, build and launch the orbiting hotel.
It sounds too good to be true. I can't help wondering if that "anonymous billionaire" might get his fingers burned...