You could soon check into a 'space hotel' within this decade

SAN FRANCISCO: If you are a space enthusiast, there is more exciting news as a US-based space construction company, Orbital Assembly Corporation (OAC), is planning to make the world's first "space hotel" operational within this decade.

Construction of this space structure designed to accommodate about 400 people is scheduled to begin in 2025, according to the company as it revealed new details about the project.

When completed, amenities available in the space hotel could range from themed restaurants, viewing lounges, movie theatres and concert venues to bars, libraries, gyms, and a health spa, Space.com reported last week.

Called the Voyager Station, it is projected to operate with artificial gravity.

The company is now inviting private investors to buy a stake in the company at $0.25 per share, said the report.

"Around 44 Starship launches will be required to send all the Voyager Station pieces in orbit, where they will then be assembled by pods and drones operated by the work crews staying in the Operation and Control Center located in the Inner Ring," OAC said in a tweet.

"Voyager Station will be in a high sun synchronous polar orbit, between 500 and 550km, there it will offer tourists and other station occupants a view of the entire surface of Earth," it added.

Voyager will have 24 habitation modules, each 20 metres long and 12 metres wide. The company plans to make this "space hotel" in low Earth orbit operational by 2027.

It will be a rotating space station designed to produce varying levels of artificial gravity by increasing or decreasing the rate of rotation, the company says on its website, adding that artificial, or simulated, gravity is essential to long term habitation in space.

The station has been designed from the start to accommodate business, manufacturing, national space agencies conducting low gravity research, and space tourists who want to experience life on a large space station with the comfort of low gravity and the feel of a luxury hotel, it added. (IANS)

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