The most anticipated space hotel has broken ground

50 years have passed since man first set foot on the Moon. Since then, we have always nurtured the dream of escaping the Earth and going out to explore the mysterious but extremely attractive universe. However, if the career of becoming an astronaut is probably out of reach for many people, a trip to outer space is not a bad suggestion.

A California-based company called The Gateway Foundation has recently unveiled plans for the Von Braun Station, a sort of interstellar cruise ship that would operate between the stars. The goal is to get the hotel off the ground by 2025 and open to guests by 2027.

Von Braun Station is not the first plan to take humans beyond Earth. Other projects include Virgin Galactic, initiated by Elon Musk's SpaceX, and Amazon's Blue Origin Space Station - not to mention NASA's International Space Station, which is also being considered for commercial use.

And Von Braun Station is not the first hotel with ambitions to operate outside of space. Earlier in 2019, a company called Orion Span, headquartered in the US, also announced a project for a luxury hotel located outside Earth called Aurora Station, expected to operate in 2022. So what will Von Braun Station have that stands out from other "colleagues"?

the differences

In the design released by the Gateway Foundation, Von Braun Station looks like a giant wheel of 24 modules orbiting the Earth. The design is named after Wernher von Braun, an aeronautical engineer who pioneered rocket technology, working first in Germany and later in the United States.

This move by the Gateway Foundation may cause controversy, because while living in Germany, he worked on a Nazi space program. Later, after the German dictatorship collapsed, he moved to work on the Apollo space program in the United States.

The name was chosen unanimously by Gateway Foundation members because the new design is based on Von Braun's sketches from about 60 years ago. "The basic physical details of the hotel are not much different from the 1950 version," said Tim Alatorre, senior design architect at Gateway Foundation.

The main difference is in terms of materials, this particular hotel will use more modern technologies: new metal alloys, carbon composites. The hotel will also use 3D printing technology, which according to Alatorre, will give Von Braun Station more space.

Space tourism is a money-burning hobby, with Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic project planning to send tourists into suborbital space for up to $250,000 per person. Meanwhile, Aurora Station is expected to cost $9.5 million for a stay there.

Von Braun Station is smarter from the start - making its customers less concerned about the cost. Of course, they're still targeting people with dollars to spare, but investors hope the price will be more like what people think of as a trip to Disneyland.

While Aurora Station aimed for their hotel to have only 12 bedrooms, Von Braun was ambitious to have enough rooms to accommodate up to 450 passengers.

Intimate aesthetic space

You must be wondering what the inside of Von Braun looks like.

Tim Alattore said that some people will immediately think of the movie.2001: A Space Odysseydirected by Stanley Kubrick. However, Von Braun would not be like that.

“I think Stanley Kubrick's goal was to highlight the difference between technology and humanity, so he made the spaceships in2001: A Space Odyssey“It became sterile, overly clean, and even too unfamiliar,” said Alatore.

Instead, Alatorre envisions bringing a slice of Earth to Von Braun Station, one that won’t overwhelm passengers with its architecture. There will be cozy suites with plush carpets, plush furnishings, and bars that look just like the world below, only with a clearer view of the stars.

“We will have more recreational activities, some of which are impossible on Earth. Because of weightlessness and reduced gravity, people will be able to jump higher and farther, and run in strange ways.”

Spaceship culture

Alattore is confident that his and his colleagues’ project will have longevity and development rather than being just a trendy gimmick. “People will want to go and experience this because it is a new thing that no one has experienced before,” he shared.

“But our goal—and the goal of the Gateway Foundation as a whole—is to create a spaceship culture. A place where people live and work in space, and they want to be there. And we believe there is a need for that.”

The Gateway Foundation also plans to use Von Braun Station for research and exploration purposes. Alatorre said he and his colleagues want Von Braun Station to be a pioneer in outer space, but he knows that even if the project doesn't materialize by 2025, competitors will still have a chance to do so.

“Space tourism is the future, and that future will happen,” Tim Alattore asserted.

Sustainability

With such a design, there are still some unanswered questions about how Von Braun Station would actually operate in space. For example, it has long been thought that living in a zero-gravity environment could be harmful to human health. Some passengers will only experience a short stay, but the crew will likely stay there for more than six months to a year.

“We will adjust their schedules as needed, but any proposal for this project is completely safe,” said Tim Alattore.

Add to that the question of sustainability, for example, for those looking for eco-friendly travel, perhaps Von Braun Station isn’t the right suggestion. But Alatore points to their own competitor, SpaceX, as an example.

The ship's Raptor engine uses methane instead of petroleum-based fuel, suggesting that environmentally friendly rocket designs may become a reality in the future.

Alatore also said that recycling is at the forefront of Von Braun Station. “This hotel will be the most eco-friendly stay ever, because we recycle everything. There will be no waste water or waste thrown away, everything will be recycled into another form.”

Construction of Von Braun Station on the ground officially began on October 1.

Nguyen Bao