Space hotels with pools, gyms, bars, and gourmet food have been one of the most common fantasies
shown in sci fi space movies. Given that only 553 people have ever reached low earth orbit
and only 24 people have gone past low earth orbit, it seems like space hotels won't be
a thing for decades if not centuries. So, you might be surprised to hear that people
may be staying in space hotels by the end of this year. If you think about it, we technically
already have a space hotel which is the ISS. Dozens of astronauts visit and stay on the
ISS for extended periods of every single year. According to google though, a hotel is an
establishment providing accommodations, meals, and other services for travelers and tourists.
Since ISS astronauts are employees and crew members as opposed to travelers or tourists,
we can’t technically say that the ISS is a space hotel right now. It should be noted
that though 7 private citizens have traveled to the ISS throughout history meaning that
the ISS has been a space hotel in the past. Surprisingly, Nasa actually wants to make
this a regular occurrence as they announced that they were opening up the ISS for private
visitors in June of 2019. Nasa has been conducting experiments and research on the ISS for two
decades at this point. They claim that there’s still plenty of research to be done in low
earth orbit, but at the same time, they’re looking to move onto bigger things like returning
to the moon and building a lunar base. So, opening up the ISS for commercial tourism
is unfortunately the early stages of NASA phasing out the ISS. Nonetheless, it does
make for an extremely cool tourist destination in the meantime. Nasa revealed that they would
be allowing up to 4 private astronauts inside the station at a time, and they would be charging
just $35,000 per day per visiting spacecraft. This means that you can send as many people
as you can fit into a single rocket for the same daily price of $35,000. If you were to
send a starship filled with 100 passengers, each passenger would only be paying $350 per
day. Given that only 4 private astronauts are allowed inside the station itself at any
given time though, it would be best to travel with a group of less than 10 people. Each
visiting group will be allowed to stay at the ISS for up to 30 days and Nasa will accept
two groups of visitors every single year. Nasa was originally aiming to have private
astronauts on board by the end of 2020, but clearly that didn’t happen. The problem
is that though the price to rent out the ISS is actually extremely cheap, it's extremely
difficult to source a rocket and fund a rocket launch. A startup called Axiom space is working
on accomplishing this though. In March of 2020, Axiom was actually able to book a crew
dragon launch with SpaceX that was supposed to happen at the end of 2021. Since then,
it has been pushed back to the start of 2022, but there’s no signs of the trip being cancelled
or anything like that. The plan is to send three tourists on a 10 day trip to the ISS.
2 days will be spent in transit, but the tourists will have a full 8 days onboard the ISS. Though
the price to rent out the ISS for 8 days only comes out to a total of $280,000, when you
throw in the cost of the rocket launch, training, and everything else involved in sending tourists
to space, we get a final price tag of $55 million per seat. Three wealthy individuals
have already booked the seats though. This includes Larry Connor, Mark Pathy, and Eytan
Stibbe. Ironically, despite spending $165 million collectively, these men may not actually
be the first to rent out the ISS. You may have heard that Tom Cruise was going to star
in the first movie that’s actually shot in space. In September of 2020, it was announced
that Tom Cruise and Director Doug Liman would be traveling to the ISS in October of 2021
to start filming. We haven’t received any updates since then though, and it’s very
possible that this mission will be pushed back into 2022. When I said that the Axiom
group wouldn’t be the first to rent out the ISS though, I wasn’t talking about Tom
Cruise, I was actually talking about Russia. You see, when Russia heard about the Tom Cruise
space movie, they decided that they had to shoot a movie in space as well. Russia plans
to send their own actress to space in October of 2021 to film a movie as well. And I have
a feeling that Russia is more dedicated in actually achieving that timeframe, but we’ll
just have to wait and see. Anyway, getting back to the axiom trip, though the tourists
are free to just relax and enjoy their trip, they revealed that they’re looking to conduct
a plethora of experience and educational activities. So, I guess it won’t be just leisure after
all. Aside from sending tourists to the ISS with the help of SpaceX, Axiom is looking
to send tourists to their own space station. At the start of 2020, Axiom received a contract
from NASA worth up to $140 million to build a commercial module for the ISS. The module
is officially supposed to be used for research and other applications. The module is meant
for commercial use though, so maybe it’s meant for private research teams as well as
tourists interested in conducting their own research. Aside from this research module,
Axiom is also looking to add habitation and tourist modules onto the ISS as well. Adding
dedicated habitation and tourist modules would complete the first steps in actually transitioning
the ISS into a space hotel as opposed to simply being a research facility that regular people
can visit. The first of these modules is expected to be launched in the second half of 2024,
and Axiom hopes to continue adding modules throughout the second half of the decade.
Eventually, as Axiom's additions to the ISS start to become too big or Nasa decides to
deorbit the ISS, Axiom is looking to disconnect their modules from the ISS and form their
own commercial space station. This would be the first space station dedicated to hosting
private tourists and researchers. Axiom is not the only company looking to capitalize
on space tourism though, another company with even grander visions is voyager. Unlike the
ISS and Axiom’s space station which have components of research and education, Voyager
is looking to build a space station completely dedicated to hospitality and tourism. And
their design is literally straight out of a sci-fi movie. First of all, Voyager is attempting
to simulate gravity which no other space station has attempted to do. Just like the movies,
Voyager plans to make a spinning station that will basically pin tourists to the walls of
the station. The rotation is expected to simulate ⅙ of earth’s gravity, and all habitation
and activity modules will have this simulated gravity. Voyager also understands that one
of the main reasons that people want to visit space is to experience weightlessness. So,
they have arranged a solution for this as well. Whenever you’re not sleeping or chilling
in one of their habitation modules, you can take the elevator to the center of the space
station which will offer a zero gravity experience. In terms of safety, Voyager plans to incorporate
44 emergency return vehicles into their space station which is basically one for each habitation
module. These emergency return vehicles vaguely resemble nasa’s space shuttle, and they
will be capable of completing an automated flight back to earth. As for amenities, Voyager
is looking to match luxury hotels on earth as much as possible. Their entry level hotel
suite offers 30 square meters or 320 square feet of living space. These suites will support
up to 2 people and offer private bathrooms which include both toilets and showers. If
you want something bigger, you can spring for their luxury villas which are absolutely
massive. Each villa is expected to have 500 square meters or 5300 square feet of living
space. These villas feature cooking facilities, three bathrooms, and can support up to 16
people each. Voyager is looking to provide a gym and activity module as well. They claim
that these modules will be 7 meters tall and support basketball, weight lifting equipment,
and cardio equipment. I don’t think anyone visiting the space hotel is looking to get
a serious workout in, but it would be quite interesting to try these tasks in an environment
with ⅙ the gravity of earth. Aside from a gym, Voyager is also looking to offer a
restaurant and bar. Apparently, the restaurant will feature iconic astronaut food like freeze
dried ice cream, but they’ll also serve gourmet food that is delivered to the station
on a biweekly basis. The entire station is expected to offer a total of 11,600 square
meters or 125,000 square feet of habitable space. This is enough to support 280 guests
and 112 crew members. Considering the large capacity of the station, John Blincow, the
leader of the effort, is hoping to bus customers in using starships. That’s all great and
all, but when will it open and how much will it cost? Well, their goal is to open in 2027,
so not that far from now. But the ticket price is of course quite high given the scope of
the trip. Right now, a 3.5 day stay on the voyager space station is expected to cost
$5 million per person. And that’s not including the starship ticket there and back. Now, it
should be noted that visions like this in the past have not exactly panned out. Orionspan
for instance pitched the idea of building a small tourist space station in 2018. Their
vision was nowhere near as grand as voyagers, but unfortunately, they were unable to raise
enough money and they would end up returning all the money they raised and shutting down
the project. This isn’t to say that Voyager will fail, but simply that the process of
building a space hotel is still extremely difficult. Nonetheless, with Nasa opening
up the ISS for space tourism, multiple companies working on space hotels, and rapid progress
with starship, I think it’s just a matter of time until we see a full on space hotel
like Voyager envisions. Will we see it in the 2020s, probably not, but will we see it
in the 2030s, quite possible. When do you guys think we’ll see full on space hotels?
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