How likely are Space Hotels?

Shall we go for a tour and stay in space for a while. How and when it will be possible? How many people can enjoy there?

Muralee Krishnan Kartha P U

video credits: Orbital Assembly Corporation

Not so far in the future, the final frontier too will be a part of your vacation itinerary. Space tourism is no longer a sci-fi concept and investors, engineers and entrepreneurs around the world are jumping on board to capitalise on this new gold rush to service the uber rich’s journey and foray into space. And the biggest testament to this is the ambitious Voyager Station, set to become a reality in 2027. 

To be built by the Orbital Assembly Corporation, headed by former pilot John Blincow, the Voyager Station aims to be the world’s first fully functional space hotel. With room for over 280 guests and 112 crew members and with all the luxuries you come to expect with a regular hotel, though with some limitations of course, the hotel aims to become the largest man made structure in space with rendered designs mimicking the station portrayed in Stanley Kubrick’s seminal 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The amenities on board match what the best has to offer here on the surface, with recreational facilities like basketball, a library, a cinema, all across 24 habitation modules spinning in a two ring truss system with spokes. The spinning enables the station to have a sort of artificial gravity wherein centrifugal force of the station spinning enables the occupants to experience about the same force on them as if they were on the moon. Spacious windows and viewing decks enable the high flying customers to experience a view of the entire earth every 90 minutes as the station zooms around our blue marble. 

Now how likely are space hotels?

Orbital Assembly Corporation isn’t the only company looking into this lucrative field right now. Axiom Space and Orion Span are similar companies who also have solid plans to construct similar infrastructure. Orion Span’s “Aurora Station” aimed to begin construction this year and begin filling it up with guests in 2022 but have since delayed its plans. Major financial and technological challenges still plague the budding field and the pandemic has done no favours. The economy of upkeep and construction of such megastructures in space without having the coffers of an entire country to back you up has also come into question with experts doubting if high worth individuals are enough to turn a profit on the entire venture. The idea of using these stations as both tourists as well as research stations by renting out part of the station to various national space programs and research institutes have also come up as possible alternative revenue streams. In any case, space have never been so close, but only if you are obscenely rich.