According to Space.com, Playboy, in conjunction with Virgin Galactic, has developed a concept for a Playboy Club in low Earth orbit. It is just the latest idea among many for space based hotels and resorts.
Concepts for a space hotel
For the past decade, Space Adventures has been sponsoring trips to the International Space Station on board Russian Soyuz for the well heeled and adventurous. Private space travelers, including computer game entrepreneur Richard Garriott and Iranian American businesswoman Anousheh Ansari have paid upward of $30 million for stays on the ISS, making it, besides a research facility, the first space hotel.
Bigelow Aerospace is planning to build a private space station consisting of inflatable modules sometime in the middle of this decade. A number of test modules have been orbited successfully, but one factor holding up the building of the private space facility is the development of a private space taxi, such as the SpaceX Dragon or Boeing CST-100, to allow customers to reach the station.
Another idea to build a private space hotel included one developed by the Space Island Group and, at one time, sponsored by Hilton, according to the BBC. This space hotel would have been built out of space shuttle fuel tanks and would have accommodated up to a 100 people at a time.
A Russian company called Orbital Technologies is working on a slightly more modest space hotel or private space station, according to CNN. The facility, which would be somewhat Spartan (no showers for instance) would accommodate seven guests.
A few years ago, a European company called Galactic Suites Resort announced plans to build a space hotel that would cost 3 million Euros to stay in, according to Reuters. As of this writing, the project is still in the design phase.
Shimizu Corporation, a Japanese firm, has a concept for a 64 room space hotel in low Earth orbit.
Playboy Club Space
The concept for a Playboy Club in space appears to be a wheeled space station, which would rotate to provide the semblance of gravity around the rim, while microgravity would prevail in the hub. There would be a micro gravity dance club, a casino where games like "human roulette" would be played, and a fine dining restaurant, the latter on the Playboy Club in space's rim. There is no word whether the place would have the equivalent of the grotto, but there would be bunnies floating about.
Bottom Line for Space Hotels
With the exception of the Bigelow scheme, concepts for space hotels or resorts remain ideas in the minds of those dreaming about them. But Space Tourism remains one of the prime markets for commercial space development. According to Space.Com, the concept of space tourism remains popular, with price being a decisive factor.
Mark R. Whittington is the author of Children of Apollo and The Last Moonwalker. He has written on space subjects for a variety of periodicals, including The Houston Chronicle, The Washington Post, USA Today, the L.A. Times, and The Weekly Standard.
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