“Work is due to start on the world's first 'space hotel' in low Earth orbit in 2025 – and it will come equipped with restaurants, a cinema, spa and rooms for 400 people.
“Developed by the Orbital Assembly Corporation (OAC), the Voyager Station could be operational as early as 2027, with the infrastructure built in orbit around the Earth.
“The space station will be a large circle and rotate to generate artificial gravity that will be set at a similar level to the gravity found on the surface of the Moon.”
– Ryan Morrison, Daily Mail (March 01, 2021)
In 2019, the California company the Gateway Foundation released plans for a cruise ship-style hotel called the “Von Braun Station” that could one day float above the Earth's atmosphere. It was scheduled to be fully operational by 2027.
Now, the hotel has a new name – “Voyager Station” – and it's set to be built by Orbital Assembly Corporation, a new construction company run by former pilot John Blincow, who also heads up the Gateway Foundation. It would accommodate 280 guests and 112 crew members while aiming to be the first commercial space hotel, upon completion.
Reports say villas on the station will be available for purchase as vacation homes. The Station also features a gourmet restaurant, bar, gymnasium, and entertainment center. It's just like a standard high-end resort … this one, however, floats in space.
Blincow told CNN …
"We're trying to make the public realize that this golden age of space travel is just around the corner. It's coming. It's coming fast.”
“Part of our experience is to give people the taste of the life of a professional astronaut,” says Frank Bunger, founder and chief executive officer of Orion Span, the firm which is behind Aurora Station.
Bunger says …
“But we expect most guests will be looking out the window, calling everyone they know, and should guests get bored, we have what we call the ‘holodeck,’ a virtual reality experience. In it you can do anything you want; you can float in space, you can walk on the Moon, you can play golf.”
(David Perry. “Would you want to stay in a space hotel?” BBC. March 07, 2021.)
Space tourism has piqued the interest of such visionaries as Richard Branson and Elon Musk. And it's the latter Blincow and his team hope to partner with in the near future. "We cannot call [Musk's] SpaceX our partner, but in the future we look forward to working with them," Blincow said at a recent live, asking the viewers to "hang tight."
When the initial designs premiered a couple years ago, Tim Alatorre, senior design architect at Orbital Assembly Corporation told CNN Travel the hotel's aesthetic was a direct response to the Stanley Kubrick movie "2001: A Space Odyssey" – which he called "almost a blueprint of what not to do."
"I think the goal of Stanley Kubrick was to highlight the divide between technology and humanity and so, purposefully, he made the stations and the ships very sterile and clean and alien."
(Francesca Street.”World's first space hotel scheduled to open in 2027.” CNN March 04, 2021.)
What would it be like to sleep in space? Architectural Digest reports that the physics involved in sleeping within a space hotel is similar to spinning water in a bucket. Much in the same way one can spin a bucket in a circle, keeping the water inside of it, the space hotel would simulate gravity in a similar manner. This makes comfortable rooms and stylish bar experiences possible.
The Digest continued …
“But, for many visitors who venture so far, feeling the weightlessness of space is a big part of the appeal. As such, the team plans to plate traditional ‘space food’ such as freeze dried ice cream in the hotel's restaurant. There are plans for recreational activities such as basketball games where participants can soar higher due to the weightlessness of the environment. Perhaps only in outer space will LeBron James have competition.”
(Nick Mafi. “The World’s First Space Hotel to Open in 2027.” Architectural Digest. March 05, 2021.)
Room rate will be steep for sure compared to other proposed public space missions. For example, Virgin Galactic plans to launch ordinary passengers into space at $250,000 per person, per trip. The team at Voyager Station, however, has already assured the public that they plan to eventually make a stay at the hotel something similar to buying a cruise ticket.
That must be a very, very expensive cruise ticket for the first passengers. Reports now say a jaunt won’t be cheap: the 12-day-journey aboard Aurora Station starts at a cool $9.5 million. Nevertheless, the company says the waiting list is booked nearly seven months ahead.
(David Perry. “Would you want to stay in a space hotel?” BBC. March 07, 2021.)
What is still to be determined are the safety and engineering standards for a civilian space vehicle. “At the moment space tourism is a field where reality, hoaxes, and science fiction are mixed up in such a way that it makes difficult to distinguish between reality and wishes,” adds Robert A Goehlich of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, who gives the only class in the world dedicated to space tourism.
Goehlich admits space tourism is already a thing; it began in 2001 when American Dennis Tito paid the Russian Space Agency a reported $20m for a seven-day visit to the ISS.
Some countries are already laying the groundwork for the future of the industry; 10 commercial spaceports are already taking shape across United States, for instance. Eric Stallmer, president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation and arguably Aurora Station’s biggest cheerleader, points out the USA has regulations on the books in the form of the Commercial Space Launch Competitive Act, passed in 2016, that addresses issues such as liability, indemnification, responsible parties, and risk.
(David
Perry. “Would you want to stay in a space hotel?” BBC. March 07,
2021.)
Whether or not Voyager Station does end up being first space hotel, you can reserve yourself a room now. Though actual dates are not yet available – which will likely be the case for a while longer – you can make a reservation through the hotel’s website now. Click here for what the site is calling “a luxury vacation literally out of this world”: https://voyagerstation.com/visit-voyager.
“Voyager Station
“Historically, a trip to space cost up to $25 million and that resulted in staying in a Zero-G facility, using vacuums for toilets, sleeping in a bag strapped to a wall, and living in a laboratory.
“Voyager Station will leverage the technologies of Space and the comforts of Earth to create a unique experience unparalleled in history. Simulated gravity will offer amenities like toilet facilities, showers, and beds that function similar to what you are used to on Earth.”
(https://voyagerstation.com/visit-voyager)
Of Course (Wink, Wink) ...
I know what you are thinking, you dirty rascals you. The possibility of having sex in space, and the complications of an outer space conception are very real. Who is traveling to Voyager to experience the ultimate fantastic voyage. And, who might be the first certified “alien” child – a person born beyond the bounds of Earth?
NASA says no humans have had sex in space. There’s nothing other than speculation to suggest otherwise. (Well, speculation and a vague sense that we would want to try it, given half a chance.) Sex – or, rather, reproduction – has piqued the curiosity of scientists, too.
When they went to space together, Astronauts Mark Lee and Jan Davis (reportedly the first married couple in space) even spent some time artificially inseminating frog eggs for the greater good. (So, somebody got lucky on that trip. Sort of.)
Former and current astronauts don’t like to talk about space-shuttle sex, and NASA says that if it’s ever happened, the agency doesn’t know anything about it. Still, speculation is rampant about who may already be a member of the 200-Mile-High Club. (NASA has never conducted official experiments on animal reproduction in space, says a spokesman.)
If astronauts have had space sex, it would have been very difficult. First off, there isn’t much privacy up there. A regular shuttle is about as big as a 737, and the two main areas – the crew cabin and middeck-- are each the size of a small office. The bathroom is little more than a seat with a curtain, and there aren’t any closed rooms where two people could retreat.
The space station, on the other hand, has a little more room to operate. The three-person crew generally splits up for sleeping time: Two of them bed down in a pair of tiny crew cabins at one end of the station, and the third might jump in a sleeping bag at the other end, almost 200 feet away. (The panel-and-strap design of a space bed might not be that conducive to lovemaking.)
Plus, astronauts also have a demanding work schedule, leaving them with little time or energy for messing around. Space-station crews do get time off on weekends, though, when they can watch movies, read books, play games, “and generally have a good time.”
(Christopher Beam. “Do Astronauts Have Sex?” Slate. February 07, 2007.)
All told, at least five species — from amoebas to rats — have gone through the act of reproduction while in orbit. Other species have spent part of their gestation in space or donated their space-altered sperm and eggs to science.
Still, the data that has come out of this research is not altogether reassuring. Space travel can affect reproduction in a couple of ways. First, most obviously, is the radiation. Space is full of subatomic particles moving very quickly. Those particles can slam into DNA like a bowling ball laying down a sweet split. The damage they leave behind can alter genetic instructions, setting up a path that leads to cancer, genetic mutations that can be passed down to children, and other problems.
The second source of danger is less well-understood. Microgravity – the whole business where astronauts float around – seems to alter biology too. It’s well-known that astronauts lose muscle mass while in space. Your body gets weaker when it doesn’t have to bear its own weight every day. But the effects of microgravity are weirder and more complex than what can be addressed by a modified treadmill.
Some of the female mice that traveled to the space station in 2010 and 2011 stopped ovulating, and others lost their corpus luteum, an important structure that forms in the ovary after the release of an egg. The corpus luteum is responsible for producing hormones that maintain a pregnancy until the placenta can grow enough to do that job itself. Without it, you might get pregnant, but the pregnancy would be unlikely to stick.
(Maggie Koerth. “Space Sex Is Serious Business.” FiveThirtyEight. March 14, 2017.)
“I've been really
tryin', baby
Tryin' to hold back this feeling for so long
And
if you feel like I feel, baby
Then, c'mon, oh, c'mon, whoa
“Let's get it
on
Ah, baby, let's get it on
Let's love, baby”
“Let's Get It On” by Marvin Gaye
Mechanics of Space Loving
So, let's get right down to the real scientific nitty-gritty. Would space sex be any good? You know, would it be a heavenly experience? Or would it simply be another science project gone wrong?
“Hey, come on,
come along take a ride
There's a party over there, that ain't no
jive
It's live, live, it's all the way live
Don't even have to
walk, don't even have to drive
Just slide, glide,
slippity-slide
Just forget about your troubles and your 9 to 5
And
just sail on (That's what you do), just sail on
Now this groove's
so funky, hey, what do you think?
What is it called? Let's call it
Lakeside stank”
“Fantastic Journey” by Lakeside
John Millis, physicist and astronomer of Anderson University in Indiana, compares sex in space to having intercourse while “skydiving” but added that it was “not impossible.”
Millis, whose work has been funded by NASA, says …
“The issues surrounding the act all revolve around the freefall, micro-gravity, environment experienced by astronauts. Imagine engaging in sexual activity while skydiving – every push or thrust will propel you in opposite directions.
“But more problems would arise if the romantic astronauts were able to lock together in a coital tryst.
“In micro-gravity blood rises to your head, instead of your genitals – making it harder for both men and women to get aroused.
“Another issue is that male testosterone levels plummet in space, meaning that rocket-riding adventurers suffer from a lack of sex drive.
“In fact, the heart will shrink over time the longer astronauts are in orbit. It also means that there is less blood in our lower extremities, the region that the body pulls from when generating an erection.
"Sex in an environment lacking gravity would result in all fluids such as sweat, vaginal wetness and semen pooling and floating around the cabin – making the high-jinks more than slightly uncomfortable.
“It would likely be very hot, especially as two bodies press against each other, as well as sweaty.
“Because of the micro-gravity environment sweat and tears don’t run down the astronaut’s bodies like it does here on Earth, instead it pools like small ponds of fluid near where it was secreted.
“If the motion is vigorous enough it could be ejected from the surface of the body. And that seems decidedly un-romantic while also possibly bringing challenges to physical movements.”
"Despite the difficulties, a couple could certainly become aroused and reach climax in space.”
(Mark Hodge. “Sex in space would be a nightmare, scientist says.” The Sun. December 7, 2018.)
The Voyager Station –
a restaurant with a spectacular view, a bar, romantic suites – yep,
folks are going to be cruising on a mission of passion and discovery.
(Background – the “Theme From The Love Boat”) And, Jack Jones
sings, “Soon will be making another run – the Love Boat promises
something for everyone.”
Human nature will ultimately prevail no matter the obstacles. That it has done and forever will do. Despite the awkwardness and psychological issues, humans will succumb to their sexual desires. They will ultimately “go where no man has gone before” in the final frontier.
“I could tell by
the look in your eyes
That I'm turning you on
Come stay another
night
I don't wanna be alone
“Open up the
door
(Oh)
Baby, I'm knock knockin'
(I'm knocking)
'Cause
I wanna take a ride in your love spaceship
(Come ride)”
“Love Spaceship” by Lloyd ft. Danah Lewis
No comments:
Post a Comment