It’s not the first time Hilton has expressed interest in developing an orbital hotel, but this time the project could become a reality: Voyager Holdings, Nanoracks and Lockheed Martin are among the companies designing one of the future private orbital space stations called Starlab.

After the International Space Station (ISS) is decommissioned, NASA will fund private partners to continue science experiments aboard future private space stations, and Voyager Holdings’ proposed project has a good chance of reaching orbit.

NASA, together with its international partners (including Roscosmos, the Russian space agency), intend to send the International Space Station to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean in 2030. The orbital outpost, which has been in use since 1998, is starting to show its age, and NASA believes that it cannot be used much longer due to aging components exposed to the harsh conditions of orbit (there are already problems with the sealing of some modules). in the Russian sector, which can be explained by the age of the components).

But abandoning the International Space Station doesn’t mean we won’t have other orbital destinations: NASA has already lined up a funding package for private projects to build an alternative to the International Space Station in the coming years.

Starlab is one of those proposals, a small space station but with the advantage that it can be quickly built in multiple copies, each of which can be used for different purposes, from biological or pharmaceutical research to, why not, space tourism . The advantage of this approach is that each space station of this type can be placed in a different orbit (including a polar one) if necessary. The project is supported by Voygaer Holdings along with Nanoracks and Lockheed Martin and consists of an inflatable module that can accommodate 4 astronauts, a service module for power and propulsion, and a docking station for visiting vehicles.

This is where Hilton comes to the rescue: the company promises to organize the interior of the space station so that it is as comfortable as possible for astronauts, in exchange for finding solutions for the commercial operation of the station using specific Hilton methods, which of course leads us to the idea of ​​​​space tourism . The internal volume of Starlab will be 340 cubic meters (compared to the 900 cubic meters, the internal volume of the International Space Station), so we can easily imagine how one or two permanent crew members could be tourists, thus contributing to financial development. on the development of this sector.

If all goes according to plan, the first Starlab space station will enter orbit in 2027, and assembly of its first module will begin the following year.

But Starlab won’t be the only space station likely to be in orbit by 2030: Blue Origin, along with Sierra Nevada (Sierra Space), is working on its own space station called Orbital Reef, which will benefit from the performance of the future New Glenn rocket to launch it into orbit. modules about 7 meters in diameter (compared to the 4.2 meters that the International Space Station modules currently have).

Orbital Reef will almost equal the current volume of the ISS after several launches and will be able to accommodate a crew of 10 on the first stage. Northrop Grumman is another company proposing a future space station project, but we don’t have many details about the solution this company is proposing.

What is certain is that there are encouraging signs that the private sector is almost ready to take over the tasks of the International Space Station, and names like Hilton lead us to believe that they have already found ways to make future space stations financially viable. (at least in a time convenient for corporations).

Photo source. Profimed