THE FIRST SPACE HOTEL
The space industry is beginning to change. Until recently, people could only travel into space on spaceships that were developed, built and paid for by governments. Then, in 2021, for the first time, tourists could go into space in spaceships1 belonging to private companies. At present, buying a ticket for one of these trips is extremely expensive. One company, for example, is selling tickets for 250,000 dollars for a space trip of 2–3 hours. The price is not surprising, since building the spaceships has cost the companies billions of dollars.(lines 1–6)
Over a hundred very rich people have already bought tickets for future space flights. This has led more private companies to start investing in space tourism. One of these companies, OAC, plans to open a luxury2 hotel in space in 2027, and is currently building and testing the different parts in its factory in California. When the hotel is eventually put together in space, 280 guests will be able to stay there, along with 112 crew members. Among its many attractions3 will be a cinema showing the latest movies. OAC also promises great views4 of Earth from every hotel window.(lines 7–13)
"Building the hotel is an extremely complex project," says travel journalist Lee Franklin. "This hotel will be larger than all other structures5 we have ever put in space. Moreover, the company engineers want to prevent hotel guests from floating6 like astronauts do. They are therefore planning to use new technology to create artificial7 gravity8. For people who do want the experience of floating, there will be special rooms with almost no gravity. But believe me, they won't want to stay in those rooms because they'll feel ill very quickly. It takes special training, like astronauts get, to be able to cope well with floating in space."(lines 14–20)
Tim Alatorre, the architect of OAC's space hotel, wants to make it easy for more people to choose to go there. He insists that where they spend their vacation, on Earth or in space, should be "a question of preference9, not of money." Franklin, however, believes the cost will remain a problem for a very long time. "Maybe the actual stay10 at a space hotel won't be much more expensive than at a luxury hotel on Earth," he says. "But there is also the enormous cost of the trip from Earth and back – and that won't be decreasing for at least 30–40 years. This means that most of us will not be looking down on Earth from a hotel window in space any time soon."(lines 21–27)