A company is working on creating the first hotel to orbit above Earth. Where do I sign up?

I have always been fascinated by space and thought that it would be cool to go up there one day. That day looks like it may be about six years away.

A California-based company named The Gateway Foundation, has released designs for a rotating space station, known as "The Von Bruan Station,"  that will "produce differing levels of artificial gravity and will accommodate up to 100 tourists a week when it opens in 2025'" according to WHIO.

The Von Braun Station will consist of various "modules," that according to The Gateway Foundation, will include:

  • Air Water Power (AWP) Module

  • Gymnasium and Assembly (GA) Module

  • Kitchen, Restaurant and Bar (KRB) Module

  • Crew Quarters Module, which will be configurable for gravity and micro-gravity habitation.

  • Privately owned modules used for villas, hotels, or commercial activity.

  • Government owned modules used for scientific research, training and staging facilities.

So one of the big questions for me here is, how will people get to the Von Braun Station?

Tim Alatorre, who is the architect behind the station said that he believes that travel to the Von Braun Station would be comparable to a cruise or a Disney World vacation with activities like concerts, movies, and seminars, according to WHIO.

Another question that I have, is how affordable will a stay be? That's the one thing that would stop most people, like myself, from going. Well, The Gateway Foundation isn't the only organization looking into space tourism. According to CNN,

Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic plans to launch passengers into sub-orbital space at the hefty sum of $250,000 per person, per trip.
Meanwhile, Aurora Station says a stay in its space hotel will cost an eyewatering $9.5 million.
Price wise, in the early phases the Von Braun hotel will also be catering to those with dollars to spend, but the foundation is hoping to make it equivalent to "a trip on a cruise or a trip to Disneyland."
That's a pretty hefty chunk of chance, but if The Gateway Foundation could find a way to get the prices down to something similar to what they mentioned above, I could see people canceling a trip to Disney to go into space...I would.
So, will this project actually come to fruition? The Gateway Foundation still has a few kinks to work on, but according to CNN, they plan to begin "terrestrial construction" on the project on October 1, 2019.

 

 

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