Out of this world: A hotel in space


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It sounds like something straight out of a science fiction movie, and the ultimate fantasy of many travellers - a vacation in space.

But, for those fed up with overcrowded resorts with no room to move, it will be a real holiday with plenty of space, thanks to a Russian firm which is to build a hotel in orbit 217 miles up. Just getting there will be an adventure in itself - it will take two days aboard a Soyuz rocket and it won't be a budget holiday: A five-day stay will cost you ?100,000 on top of ?500,000 for journey.

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The hotel, or the Commercial Space Station to give it its proper name, is due to open by 2016 and it will be "far more comfortable" than International Space Station used by astronauts and cosmonauts.

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The hotel would house seven guests in four cabins and have huge windows for views of the Earth turning below. And, in the weightlessness of space, visitors can choose to have beds that are either vertical or horizontal, while showers will be sealed affairs to stop water going where it shouldn't. Tourists, who will be accompanied by experienced crew, will dine on food prepared on Earth and sent up on the rocket, to be reheated in microwave ovens, says the company behind the unique project. Iced tea, mineral water and fruit juices will be available, but alcohol will be strictly prohibited. Toilets will use flowing air instead of water to move waste through the system, according to Orbital Technologies which will construct the hotel.

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Waste water will be recycled, while air will be filtered to remove odour and bacteria and then returned to the cabin. Sergei Kostenko, chief executive of Orbital Technologies, said: "Our planned module inside will not remind you of International Space Station. A hotel should be comfortable inside, and it will be possible to look at the Earth through portholes. Hotel will be aimed at wealthy individuals and people working for private companies who want to do research in space."

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http://www.orbitaltechnologies.ru

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We can barely afford going from coast to coast, I doubt we'll be able to o that any time soon.

LMAO! Indeed. I'm thinking they chose the wrong economic time to launch this venture.

But on another note, what's with no windows? If I was in space I'd expect to be able to see stuff... lol

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LMAO! Indeed. I'm thinking they chose the wrong economic time to launch this venture.

But on another note, what's with no windows? If I was in space I'd expect to be able to see stuff... lol

The hotel would house seven guests in four cabins and have huge windows for views of the Earth turning below.

:trout:

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The hotel would house seven guests in four cabins and have huge windows for views of the Earth turning below.

:trout:

Whoops, I missed that paragraph... lol Sounds like a neat vacation, I just can't imagine many people doing it...

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We can barely afford going from coast to coast, I doubt we'll be able to o that any time soon.

LMAO! Indeed. I'm thinking they chose the wrong economic time to launch this venture.

You hang out wiht the wrong crowd guys :rofl: Obviously, the service is marketed to the super rich. So far, Russia has taken 7 tourists up to the orbit since 2001 and with each of them having paid 20+ million.

In comparison, half a million that it costs now sounds like a bargain!

And then there's also Virgin Galactic, although they are going to offer sub-orbital flights

Virgin Galactic, one of the leading potential space tourism groups, is planning to begin passenger service aboard the VSS Enterprise, a Scaled Composites SpaceShipTwo type spacecraft. The initial seat price is $200,000, with a required down-payment of $20,000.[25] To date, over 410 people have made down payments on bookings
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But on another note, what's with no windows? If I was in space I'd expect to be able to see stuff... lol

They don't want you to see the UFOs whizzing by :shiftyninja:

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I can think of plenty of experiments I would like to do in Zero G, and not all of them involve sex

I just want to play SC2 up there, enjoy the view, and take shots with one of those bad ass cameras attached to the wall (pic no. 2) :)

Can anyone tell if those are Canons or Nikons? :rofl:

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Maybe I can get a deal at hotels.com.

Are you kidding me?

This more than ever requires the expertise of...

priceline-585x438.jpg

I just want to play SC2 up there, enjoy the view, and take shots with one of those bad ass cameras attached to the wall (pic no. 2) :)

Can anyone tell if those are Canons or Nikons? :rofl:

I believe those are the Camfake Rendersharp's :shifty:

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Are you kidding me?

This more than ever requires the expertise of...

priceline-585x438.jpg

You beat me to it. :laugh:

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A nit of perspective; their station would be ~3 metres (9.8?ft) in diameter with a habitable volume of about 20?m3 (710?cu?ft), about two SpaceX Dragons.

A single Bigelow BA-330 module is 6.7?m (22.0?ft) in diameter and 330 m3 (11,654 cu ft), and their commercial station will have three of them with the ability to add far more.

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Personally, likely not.

Literally - as in on the news, very likely. It's re-tasked Salyut-style Soviet era space station that's been stored and refurbed.

Another outfit called Excalibur Almaz is working on something much like it that would use the Russian TKS capsule as an Earth return vehicle. Excalibur Almaz is by far the more serious of the two, being managed by several former NASA and Roskosmos program managers, administrators and astro/cosmo-nauts.

http://www.excaliburalmaz.com/

At the E-A open house -

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we will never see it

If you mean this particular project, then no it prob wont be "the one" but if you are suggesting a space hotel will never happen, well thats a bit ignorant. Space tourism already exist, with 7 people who already took that leap. Granted its for those with money to burn, but its not going away. Also with Virgin Galactic getting ready to start, it means its only a matter of time before we see something like this. So yes a space hotel will happen and most likely happen within our life time if not the next few decades.

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