[VIDEO] Space Hotel Const. Plans Begin

March 3, 2021

Construction on humanity’s first hotel in outer space will begin this decade according to the group behind it, Orbital Assembly. The company plans to begin building Voyager Station—the commercial space station that will house the hotel—in low Earth orbit in 2025, and believes its interstellar resort may be operational as soon as 2027, according to the New York Post. 

In addition to the “novelty of the setting,” there will be onboard amenities including restaurants, a health spa, a theater, gyms, libraries, and more. The hotel will reportedly circle the globe every 90 minutes, and the circle’s rotation will generate artificial gravity similar to that on the moon. No construction costs have been revealed yet.

According to Space.com, the group’s Structure Truss Assembly Robot (STAR) will fabricate the frame of the Voyager in orbit. OAC is also creating a robotic observer drone for remote viewing via a virtual reality headset as its first in-house development project. 

"It's going to be our eyes on the job site," said Tim Alatorre, one of the station's designers. "The observer drone operates in a support function. It can perch on existing craft. It can also be fully reusable and can fly and have a free-flight mode on extended missions."

The company plans to construct a prototype gravity ring that will measure 200 feet in diameter, and will be engineered to spin up to create artificial gravity near Mars’ level—about 40 percent that of Earth.

The Washington Post reported that the pandemic may ultimately delay the construction start date from its original 2025 projection. However, the company believes it could take just a year or two to assemble Voyager Station.

According to the article, a trip to the first space hotel should cost $5 million for about 3.5 days orbiting the Earth. 

Source: Washington Post, New York Post, Space.com, Orbital Assembly