My profile:
Spanish Company to Launch $3Bln Galactic Hotel by 2012
- By Unknown
- Aug. 13 2007 00:00
An artist's rendition of the Galactic Hotel, which is expected to open in 2012.
BARCELONA, Spain -- Galactic Suite, the first hotel planned in space, expects to open for business in 2012 and would allow guests to travel around the world in 80 minutes.
Its Barcelona-based architects say the space hotel will be the most expensive in the galaxy, costing $4 million for a three-day stay.
During that time, guests would see the sun rise 15 times a day and use Velcro suits to crawl around their pod rooms by sticking themselves to the walls.
Company director Xavier Claramunt says the three-bedroom boutique hotel's joined-up pod structure, which makes it look like a model of molecules, was dictated by the fact that each pod room had to fit inside a rocket to be taken into space.
"It's the bathrooms in zero gravity that are the biggest challenge," Claramunt said. "How to accommodate the more intimate activities of the guests is not easy."
But they may have solved the issue of how to take a shower in weightlessness --guests will enter a room with floating water bubbles.
Galactic Suite began as a hobby for Claramunt, a former aerospace engineer, until a space enthusiast decided to make the fantasy a reality by fronting most of the $3 billion needed to build the hotel.
A U.S. company intent on colonizing Mars, which sees Galaxy Suite as a first step, has since come on board, and private investors from Japan, the United States and the United Arab Emirates are in talks.
If Claramunt is secretive about the identity of his generous backer, he is more forthcoming about the business he can expect.
"We have calculated that there are 40,000 people in the world who could afford to stay at the hotel. Whether they will want to spend money on going into space, we just don't know."
Its Barcelona-based architects say the space hotel will be the most expensive in the galaxy, costing $4 million for a three-day stay.
During that time, guests would see the sun rise 15 times a day and use Velcro suits to crawl around their pod rooms by sticking themselves to the walls.
Company director Xavier Claramunt says the three-bedroom boutique hotel's joined-up pod structure, which makes it look like a model of molecules, was dictated by the fact that each pod room had to fit inside a rocket to be taken into space.
"It's the bathrooms in zero gravity that are the biggest challenge," Claramunt said. "How to accommodate the more intimate activities of the guests is not easy."
But they may have solved the issue of how to take a shower in weightlessness --guests will enter a room with floating water bubbles.
Galactic Suite began as a hobby for Claramunt, a former aerospace engineer, until a space enthusiast decided to make the fantasy a reality by fronting most of the $3 billion needed to build the hotel.
A U.S. company intent on colonizing Mars, which sees Galaxy Suite as a first step, has since come on board, and private investors from Japan, the United States and the United Arab Emirates are in talks.
If Claramunt is secretive about the identity of his generous backer, he is more forthcoming about the business he can expect.
"We have calculated that there are 40,000 people in the world who could afford to stay at the hotel. Whether they will want to spend money on going into space, we just don't know."
