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Space ‘Hotel,’ for Business or Pleasure, Takes Shape
Imagine yourself, sometime in the next decade, with a fantastic idea for a new business that requires manufacturing in the weightlessness of space. Or maybe, having made your fortune on Earth, you’d simply like to vacation in a very high place.The Russians charge upward of $50 million for a short trip to the International Space Station. NASA can’t help you at all. But there’s a Nevada company ready to offer a month’s stay in Earth orbit for $15 million — a bargain, considering that for 40 years, the cost of space travel has stubbornly refused to come down.
Sounds like one of those things guaranteed never to happen? Maybe, but Robert Bigelow has two prototype space habitats, unmanned but functional, orbiting 350 miles above Earth, right now.
