The Speculist » Space Tourism

Hotels on the Moon

Phil Bowermaster — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 06:23:02 +0000

An interesting tidbit from the most recent season of Mad Men (the critically acclaimed drama series about Madison Avenue advertising execs in the early 1960′s) was the depiction of Conrad Hilton as seriously interested in putting a hotel on the moon. I don’t if this is historically accurate, but it was completely believable. It made for a wonderful moment wherein our heroes, having delivered an impressive pitch to Hilton touting his hotel chain’s international cred, are completely deflated when the magnate icily demands to know what happened to the moon.

I ask for the moon and you give me this?

They thought he was being metaphorical about thinking big or something. He wasn’t.

He wanted to put a hotel on the moon.

Maybe he was a little eccentric, or maybe he was just a bit ahead of his time.

Comparison of SpaceShipOne and SpaceShipTwo

Stephen Gordon — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 06:04:34 +0000

Click for larger image

SpaceShipTwo is more than twice the size of the original, x-prize-winning SpaceShipOne.

Ultimate Weight Loss Made Easy

Phil Bowermaster — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 06:42:43 +0000

Not necessarily inexpensive, though. If I wanted to, I could drop my remaining 231 pounds more or less instantaneously. But the effect would only last about four minutes and it would cost about $4000 bucks:

Zero gravity, once an exclusive playground for astronauts and select scientists, is no longer out of reach to everyday people. Millionaires, doctors, and teachers are feeling the fleeting freedom of weightlessness. The price is under $4,000 for nearly five minutes in zero-G.

“It’s the wave of the future,” said Syracuse University public administration and space policy professor W. Henry Lambright. “It’s part of the maturity of the space program.”

In the more than 40 years of zero-gravity flights, beginning with astronauts, the world’s two largest space agencies have flown thousands of scientists, engineers, astronauts, and even the cast and crew of the movie Apollo 13, said Alan Ladwig, former
NASA associate administrator. Ladwig, now Washington space operations chief for Northrop Grumman Corp., estimates 50,000 people may have flown in zero gravity.

Five planes create zero-G conditions. NASA has one. The European Space Agency has one. The Russians have one. Two are commercially operated in the United States by Zero Gravity Corp. of Dania Beach, Fla.

Besides Zero Gravity Corp., there are at least three other companies that sell zero-G flights to tourists, including Novespace of France, Space Adventures Ltd. of Virginia, and Incredible Adventures Inc. of Florida. Those companies must arrange for a jet either from Zero Gravity Corp. or the European or Russian space agencies.

People who shell out for zero-gravity flights will no doubt also be in the market for sub-orbital and even orbital flights, once they become affordable. And these are the same folks who will be booking overnight stays in space hotels.

Personally, I’m holding out for a Carnival Cruise to Mars and the asteroid belt, but that might be a while yet. After all, that midnight buffet would be an interesting experience in a zero-g or low-g environment.

Space Hotel

Phil Bowermaster — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 06:31:51 +0000

Rand Simberg has the details:

Bigelow announced at lunch that he will be putting up a three-person space station in late 2009 or early 2010, about fifty percent bigger than an ISS module. He is putting up a destination in hopes that the transportation will come along (and in order to spur the transportation providers). Station will last for several years. Will be executing contracts in 2008 for transportation contracts to Sundancer. Expects between four and eight trips (people and cargo) per year, after six-month shakedown. Then trips will commence whenever transportation becomes available. 2012 will see the launch of another module providing 500 cubic meters of habitable volume.

Check it out.