Recently, space architecture company Orbital Assembly announced that its space hotel under construction will be open to visitors as early as 2025.
It is reported that the space hotel is called Pioneer Station, and the shape is similar to the "rotating wheel" running around the earth.
Figure | Pioneer Station concept art (Credit: Orbital Assembly)
If completed as scheduled, the station will be the first habitable platform in space to provide artificial gravity, bringing unprecedented experiences to human research, tourism and other activities, marking a fundamental transformation in the ecology of the existing low-Earth orbit space station.
Tim Alatorre, Chief Operating Officer of Orbital Assembly, said: "Pioneer Station is designed like a rotating bucket that rotates and pushes objects to the periphery, just as the water in the bucket remains in place as it rotates. ”
It is understood that the space station can provide up to 0.57 times the earth's gravity (mars gravity multiple is about 0.38), there will be no artificial gravity near the center of the space station, and the sense of gravity will increase when moving downward.
The interior design of Pioneer Station is similar to that of a luxury hotel, and its structure, according to the company's official website, can have up to 8 living modules, each connected by an elevator shaft. Docking ports are in 4 to 16. Each module has a volume of about 375m3 and can accommodate about 7 people. That is, according to the maximum configuration, the Pioneer Station can accommodate up to 56 people. It is understood that the 2025 version of the Pioneer Station, or will allow 28 people to live.
It's worth mentioning that Pioneer Station isn't the only project Orbital Assembly has built in space. The company is also building another tourist space station that can accommodate up to 440 people, Voyager Station, which is expected to open for the first time in 2027 or late this decade.
Figure | Voyager Station (Source: Orbital Assembly)
Ala Torre said: "Pioneer Station can be realized more quickly due to its smaller size. It also gives us the opportunity to build larger space experience stations. ”
It is understood that there are more than 11600m2 of habitable space in the modules and access tubes of the Voyager Station, and its construction in the Earth orbit will use automation and remote robots to become the largest artificial structure in space after completion.
The station has dozens of living modules including restaurants, activity centers, villas, research institutes, etc. People can carry out a series of activities such as work, entertainment, and scientific research on it.
Video monitors on the modular walls allow people to view the Earth and space in real time.
The "cross" inside the ring is an elevator, providing guests with transportation channels from modules such as residence and activities to zero gravity docking centers, and can also easily transport industrial materials from ships to various modules. The zero gravity docking center is the docking hub at the center of the circle, which is the ship's docking station in the earth and beyond.
The Traveller Station also comes with 44 Emergency Return Vehicles (ERVs) with automatic flight controls to provide people with unexpected relief measures. At present, the specific specifications of the station are set at an outer diameter of 200 meters and a mass of 2418 tons.
Figure | Conceptual map of local details of the Voyager Station (Source: Orbital Assembly)
It is understood that the original design of the rotating space station is for commercial and national space agencies to conduct low-gravity research, and at the same time, it also provides tourists with low-gravity and luxury hotel general services in space.
Artificial gravity is essential for people to live in space for a long time. The traveler station simulates gravity about one-sixth of earth, and can even generate varying degrees of artificial gravity by increasing or decreasing its own rotational speed.
Regarding the specific construction process of the Voyager Station, it is reported that it was first built as an unpressurized ring structure - a docking hub with docking arms and stabilizers that can capture and lock the visiting spacecraft to unload passengers and cargo.
People and objects will move freely through pressurized passage tubes (elevators) connecting the inner ring docking hub and the outer ring truss.
Then the structure to be built is the outer ring truss. "Trusses will be the backbone of the station and provide installation support for habitable modules, solar panels, radiators and transport systems." Orbital Assembly indicates.
The bottom of the outer ring truss is a variety of pressurized modules called living rings. Modules will be available in a variety of configurations, including gymnasiums, kitchens, restaurants, bars, crew quarters, as well as private modules for living or conducting business, as well as government-specific modules for scientific research, training and stage facilities.
Through the construction of the Voyager Station and the Pioneer Station, it can be seen that orbital Assembly's goal is not only to build a hotel in space for people to use for tourism, but also to build a business park that can become a place for people to work and study, and these facilities can also be rented.
In recent years, space tourism has made some progress with the push of commercial companies such as SpaceX, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic. But the price is still relatively expensive, even as high as tens of millions of dollars. That's far from affordable, and I don't know how economically viable orbital Assembly's space hotel will be in three years' time.
The company also mentioned that as space tourism continues to boom, the price problem will be further solved.
Finally, anyway, wake up in the comfort of your hotel room and take in spectacular views of the solar system, or the future of human travel.
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Reference:
https://orbitalassembly.com/projects
https://voyagerstation.com/building-voyager
https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/space-hotel-orbital-assembly-scn/index.html
https://www.financialexpress.com/lifestyle/travel-tourism/orbital-assembly-space-hotel-space-tourism/2514923/