Tourism and space hotels

Key results

  • Partial g is itself a tourist attraction (Paul451): it is novel and comfortable (Apollo lunar-g sleep), while zero g grows unpleasant (eating, washing, waste). An AG hotel needs a small zero-g core play area and a counter-rotating viewing platform Paul451, 2024-04-03.
  • Lunar g is "stupidly fun" and comfortable, so a tourist facility needs only minimal AG for the necessities Paul451, 2022-10-31.
  • Even 0.1 g eases bathroom use, eating, cooking and washing; keep a 0 g core for play TrevorMonty, 2018-07-16.
  • KelvinZero's minimal tourist destination: LEO, storm shelter, gravity for dining, sleep and toilet, zero-g volume, Dragon docking, stays of weeks to months at Mars g KelvinZero, 2022-11-01.
  • Economics (lamontagne):
  • Investors want ROI in 3–5 years (like Cuban hotels). Tourists pay ~4–5× the travel cost for accommodation: a $10k trip means a $50k stay.
  • A 1000-tourist station with weekly turnover earns ≤$2B/yr, so it must cost only a few $B. Week-long stays mean low radiation dose lamontagne, 2022-10-16.
  • A smaller space hotel business plan paying back in ~3 years at high occupancy lamontagne, 2024-03-03.
  • Industry structure.
  • Coastal Ron: hotel brands follow markets. Use the National Park concession model: the station owner builds the hotel section, an operator runs it, and a separate space-tourism marketer sells it Coastal Ron, 2023-01-09; Coastal Ron, 2023-01-11.
  • Twark_Main: innovators partner with incumbents, e.g. Hilton + Voyager Starlab (2023) Twark_Main, 2023-01-09.
  • Tourism follows industry. Cruise ships began as cabins on cargo vessels, so the first space tourists will stay in hotel rooms on stations dedicated to other revenue Coastal Ron, 2023-01-03; Coastal Ron, 2023-01-02.
  • Tourists ≠ private adventurers Robotbeat, 2023-01-05. Mix adventure tourism with productive work mikelepage, 2023-01-06.
  • Veblen goods: tourists are a revenue stream for the real population Twark_Main, 2023-01-05.
  • Mass tourism is the volume SpaceX needs. A zero-g terminal plus shuttle capsules sliding into spinning "hotel sticks" lamontagne, 2022-10-12.
  • Starship passenger versions up to 1000 raise the question of what a 200–1000 person station looks like lamontagne, 2022-10-11.
  • Processing 400 Starship passengers is a problem; toilet capacity in transit shuttles lamontagne, 2022-10-24; lamontagne, 2022-10-24.
  • A 400-"astrotourist" space hotel press claim (Gateway Foundation) CameronD, 2019-09-03.
  • Hotel designs:
  • mikelepage's Mars-g hotel for 30–40 people: a torus of 18 hinged module pairs with king rooms, dorm, kitchen, dining, gym, lab, and a centre cupola for views mikelepage, 2023-05-16.
  • mikelepage's resort target on Hall's chart: 25–30 m radius, ~3.8 rpm, 0.379 g mikelepage, 2022-10-23.
  • lamontagne's "Space Can" and small sun-pointer hotel. See the concepts catalog.
  • An airport hotel analogy: a space airport with 1 g toilets, restaurants and hotels rsdavis9, 2025-09-08.
  • Guest experience.
  • What will guests do? Coastal Ron, 2023-01-05
  • lamontagne's time budget: sleeping 33%, eating and cooking 10%, learning 20%, fooling around 18%, dedicated tasks 20%, parks and views 1%, garden 1%. Design hotels around it lamontagne, 2023-10-17.
  • Sports under Coriolis: ping-pong played across the rotation, curved tables, basketball hoops on the sides Twark_Main, 2023-06-17.
  • Views: see lighting and windows. In an equatorial orbit, Canadians, Americans and Europeans can't see home (a hotel issue) lamontagne, 2026-09-16.
  • Private yachts mikelepage, 2022-10-20.
  • Tourism vs gravity. Spin reduces some tourism benefits (no 0 g, rotating view) rakaydos, 2024-03-25.

Open questions

  • Will tourists pay for gravity, or for zero g? A hotel probably needs both.
  • What stay length and price point justify a rotating hotel over a zero-g one?

Sources

Forum posts