Space Hotel to Open in 2012

blackdefiance writes "The New York Times is reporting that firm plans for the first hotel in space are now in the works. Slated for a 2012 opening, 'Galactic Suite' will cost about $4 million for a three-day stay. 'They may have solved the issue of how to take a shower in weightlessness -- the guests will enter a spa room in which bubbles of water will float around. When guests are not admiring the view from their portholes they will take part in scientific experiments on space travel. Galactic Suite began as a hobby for former aerospace engineer Claramunt, until a space enthusiast decided to make the science fiction fantasy a reality by fronting most of the $3 billion needed to build the hotel. An American 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.'"

Vaporware

[Lon Star]

I'm surprised how much play this story is getting considering how little evidence there is that this is little more than someone's joke design project for fun. Especially when there is another, more legitimate company like Bigelow Aerospace that also intends on having a private space station by 2012 but can back that up with TWO test modules actually in space and actually has a manufacturing facility.

I mean, the reporter takes their word for it when they say some American who they can't name is giving them $3 billion. I figure I could got to the same reporter and say someone is giving me a couple billion to build the world's biggest saussage and it will make the headlines the next day.

Not sure how much competition to Bigelow they really are, and I also have doubts about their $3 billion funding figure. I think we need more proof than their word.

Bigelow has: - A manufacturing plans currently building the modules for its stations - A corporate structure - Two test modules currently in space - A concrete business plan - More than 100 employees

Galactic Suite has: - A Web site with nice illustrations. Though its strange title font looks like it was done in Microsoft Paint.

This seems like little more than a nice Web site and fancy illustrations. Galactic Suite also seems to indicate it would use the Space Shuttle for construction, which would be news to NASA, which plans to put the orbiters in the Smithsonian by 2010.

Seems like more vaporware to me. I'd rather put my money on Bigelow to build the first private space station.

Bigelow put up some cool, REAL pictures from space on this page: http://bigelowaerospace.com/out_there/view_photos. php [bigelowaerospace.com].

Re:Bull

[FleaPlus]

holy crap, they were not even talking about on the moon. They were talking orbital. $3 Billion is not enough to build a hotel, considering the ISS is cost at least 1 BILLION dollars per year to operate.

As I've mentioned in another comment, Bigelow Aerospace already has a couple of one-third-size habitat prototypes in orbit right now, and he's stated that he doesn't plan to spend a total of more than $400 million on the project over the next several years.

Keep in mind that most of the $1.8 billion annual cost of the ISS [wikipedia.org] is spent on space shuttle flight operations. Of course, since the space shuttle is used almost exclusively for the ISS, a good part of the $4 billion a year it costs to keep the shuttles running should probably be added to that as well. In any case, NASA's ISS spending figure isn't a good indicator of how much it would cost to run a for-profit orbital habitat.