- Would you pay $250K for a stay at a hotel on the moon that exists only in theory?
When you start a new, exciting project, it’s easy to get carried away. Since you’re thinking about how hard completing your goals will be, it’s easy to overpromise on your results.
GRU Space may have done a bit of that.
The San Francisco-based space tourism firm has recently started taking reservations for a vacation of a lifetime. We’re talking about nothing less than a stay at the first-ever hotel built on the service of the moon.
Never mind that the hotel doesn’t exist as anything more than 3D renders at the moment.
To the company’s credit, GRU Space does have a plan. It has published an entire white paper on how the company aims to use proceeds from the pre-bookings and investors to build the first permanent structure on the moon.
Which they envision as a hotel for ultra-wealthy space tourists that they’ll build within the next few years. Sounds a little ambitious, maybe.
Additionally, according to the company’s economic case, their plan hinges on AI-powered technologies creating a new class of mega-rich tech people who would want to buy exorbitantly expensive trips to the moon. Considering the current state of AI…
But hey, we’re not in the space hotel business. What do we know?
Locally Sourced Materials
GRU Space isn’t the first company to dream about building a hotel on the moon or in space. For instance, in 2021, Oddee reported on a space hotel in Earth orbit that was supposed to open by next year.
We should probably check up on how that project is going.
Anyway, what sets GRU Space apart is the method and timescale the company aims to bring its plans to fruition. According to the company’s white paper, they’re looking to start taking guests to the first moon hotel from 2032 onward.
Unlike most other similar plans, which have aimed to bring construction materials from Earth, GRU Space intends to build its hotel on site. The company plans to make the necessary building blocks out of lunar soil using robotic compressors.
This isn’t complete sci-fi speculation, as organizations like NASA have already developed prototypes of such devices. However, whether they’ll actually be functional within the next couple of years is a big question.
An Evolving Hotel
Should GRU Space’s plans materialize, the company intends to build its hotels in two phases. The first hotel, designated V1, is a humbler establishment.
The white paper states that this hotel would accommodate four guests for an average stay of five nights. It could manage up to 12 trips a year and have a lifespan of 10 years for a payload delivery cost of $100 million.
The second V2 hotel would be more expansive. It could house 10 people for similar durations as the V1 structure and have a lifespan of 20 years. Due to the existing infrastructure on the moon, hauling this hotel up there should cost only $10 million.
GRU Space plans to build the hotels at a scenic location, with great views of the moonscape and Earth. In addition to hunkering down in whatever living pod you have, the company plans to offer “exciting extravehicular activities.”
Of course, the big question about all this is price. Moon trips certainly don’t come cheap.
You can now pre-book your place among the first guests in this extraterrestrial vacation resort. It costs only $250,000 — or $1 million if you’re feeling generous.
Once the hotel is built, according to GRU Space’s estimates, a stay at the V1 would cost upward of $400,000. At the more established V2, the cost per person would fall to about $85,000.
Potential Customers
That’s a steep price tag, but it’s a bargain compared to current space tourism prices. For example, in 2001, entrepreneur Dennis Tito paid $36 million to spend eight days on the ISS.
Still, that’s not the kind of prices regular folks will likely pay. However, GRU Space doesn’t think regular folks will be their customers.
Instead, according to the white paper, the company believes the “AI explosion” will create a “new source of ultra wealth in the form of top AI software engineers.” Due to future automated AI tech solutions, these hyper-rich nerds will have plenty of spare time on their hands, and current celebrity trips to space will inspire them to seek new horizons.
What’s more, the company believes it will have governmental backing for the project. The current U.S. administration has expressed interest in establishing “the first elements of a permanent moon base” by 2030.
GRU Space believes they have just the thing to make that happen. And that solution is a moon hotel for stupidly rich tech bros.
To Infinity and Beyond
Yet, according to the white paper, this isn’t just about a hotel on the moon. No, this is about the future.
GRU Space believes that “we live at an inflection point where we can actually become interplanetary before we die.” The white paper states that humanity’s transition to a “space-faring species” is not a possibility — it’s inevitable.
And the moon hotel is just the first on GRU Space’s six-step master plan.
According to the company, the first moon hotel “solves off-world surface habitation.” It will directly lead to building the first U.S. moon base with roads, warehouses, and other physical infrastructure.
The next step is to repeat this all on Mars. By the end of the plan, GRU Space believes “humanity reaches Kardashev Scale Type III” civilization, being able to harness the energy output of an entire galaxy.
Is this a business proposal for a hotel or a galactic empire?