Pack Your Bags for Space Travel by 2025, You Will Be Staying at the Von Braun

Pack your bags, because you won’t have to wait longer than 2025 until you can book a stay at an actual space hotel, thanks to The Gateway Foundation. The Foundation wants to put tourists in space, in the first hotel with artificial gravity, a place that will blend home comfort with ultimate luxury. The hotel, Von Braun Space Station or spaceport, will (hopefully) be operational by that deadline, accommodating an average of 100 tourists per week.

Of course, the idea of sending tourists into space is not new. Hollywood has all but exhausted all possible scenarios, and there are plans to make space tourism a reality as well. The Von Braun will be different than these, in that it will have artificial gravity and will operate pretty much like a regular hotel. That’s because Tim Alatorre, senior design architect of the spaceport, believes that this is what humans want: they don’t want a sterile environment but something that reminds them of home, something they can connect with on a deeper level.

Built with technology already in use on the International Space Station (ISS) and based on ideas developed in the 1950s by Wernher von Braun, the Von Braun will be shaped as a 190-meter-diameter wheel that will spin to create artificial gravity. It will include 24 modules, some of which will be sold as private residences, some will be lent to governments for scientific purposes, and the rest will serve for space tourism, Alatorre explained in an August 2019 interview with Dezeen.

In total, the spaceport will be able to house an estimated 400 people, and they will be having as much fun as we do today on a cruise. The fact that there’s artificial gravity will make both visiting and long-term stay comfortable, while the on-spot amenities will add to the fun of space travel.

The Von Braun will include full-working kitchens, restaurants, bars, entertainment areas, and rooms. Entertainment will range from music concerts to movie screenings, to fancy dinners and educational seminars. Everything will be furnished using natural materials and colors, because Alatorre believes that a homely décor is what people want to see, regardless of where they travel. So forget what you may have seen on the big or small screen regarding accommodations in space.

“Developments in material science now allow for lightweight, easily cleanable natural material substitutes for stone and wood that would normally not be feasible to bring into orbit,” Alatorre explains. “The use of fabrics, warm-colored lighting and paints, and materials with texture, all help us to connect and feel at home. Because the station will have gravity there will be sense of direction and orientation that isn't present in the ISS.”

Because there will be gravity, people will be able to use the toilet just like they would in their own home – and this can’t be stressed enough. They will also be able to eat regular food and do just about anything they’d do on a cruise ship. In fact, this is what staying at the spaceport will be like, in Alatorre’s view.

“Eventually, going to space will just be another option people will pick for their vacation, just like going on a cruise, or going to Disney World,” he says. “Because the overall costs are still so high most people assume that space tourism will only be available to the super rich, and while I think this will be true for the next several years, the Gateway Foundation has a goal of making space travel open to everyone.”

That last part in particular is very cool. Every other project aimed at space travel implies costs that make it available only to a select few, but it seems that the Foundation is thinking of a more accessible option.

It’s also thinking past the 2025 deadline: the Von Braun spaceport is but a stepping stone. Once it’s built and proven viable, the Foundation will build The Gateway, which is an entirely new class of station that will accommodate over 1,400 people.

You still have some time until 2025, but you might want to start packing your bags.