History
The space station began as a hobby for Xavier Claramunt, architect and director of Galactic Suite Design. The Galactic Suite Space Resort entered development after an unnamed space enthusiast invested US$3 billion to build it. An American company with the goal of colonising Mars assisted in some of the early stages of the project, and discussions with additional private investors from Japan, the United States and the United Arab Emirates are reportedly underway.
Early design stage and customer experience
The earlier stages of the Galactic Suite Space Resort design called for a central hub with a dozen modules radiating outwards, providing an indefinite number of bedrooms for several customers at a time. Claramunt said that while it would be a challenge to design a bathroom that works in microgravity, showers might be taken in a spa room with bubbles of floating water. The issue of moving around in space would be solved by having guests wear suits of Velcro for sticking to the module walls, similar to its use in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The station would orbit the Earth once every 90 minutes, providing 16 day-and-night cycles every 24 hours.
The company stated that a three-day stay would cost US$4 million per customer. Company studies found that 40,000 people worldwide were capable of affording such a stay. This complete space tourism experience will also include the design of a "James Bond-style astronaut training" center and spaceport which will be based in the Caribbean. The spaceport would also house a new launch system built with safety and the environment in mind.
Further development
As of 2008, the design size was reduced with a smaller number of modules, up to four, around a central service module. According to this design the station will have a total of five modules including three rooms, one service module and one multipurpose module.[citation needed]>
The hotel will be located in a low Earth orbit, at an altitude of 450 kilometres, where it would be under the protection of radiation provided by the Van Allen Belts, and allow faster access and return to the Earth.[citation needed]
As of 2008, Claramunt stated then that construction of the station would begin in October 2008, and that European company EADS Astrium would be the contractor in charge of building the modules and other equipment.. In November 2010, the Company announced that a first phase would bring into orbit a single modified ATV module for a cost of 400M Euros, while a second phase would increase the total number of modules up to four in a cross configuration.
Criticism
Some experts, including Thomas Bouvet (International Astronautical Federation), Mark Homnick (4Frontiers) and Juan de Dalmau (Centro Tecnológico para la Industria Aeronáutica y del Espacio) have expressed skepticism about the project, raising concerns that Galactic Suite will be unable to meet the 2012 goal because no hardware has been built and tested. The stated investment to the company is an issue since it has not revealed the identity of its investor. The investment might fall short of covering all the project's needs; for example, the suborbital shuttle proposed by EADS Astrium would cost €1 billion, and the transformation of ESA's Automated Transfer Vehicle into a craft capable of transporting people to space and return them safely to Earth would cost around €2 billion. However, the Galactic Suite Space Resort is a space station and does not need reentry capabilities, which would considerably reduce its development
cost.
Although EADS Astrium claimed to have no information regarding Galactic Suite in 2008 , it now recognized the project as a space hotel currently undergoing development. In September 2010, the company presented the status of its project based on ATV technologies at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC).
Galactic Suite Moon Race, a GLXP venture
Galactic Suite Design also got involved in the Google Lunar X PRIZE through a filial company, Galactic Suite Moon Race, which leads the Barcelona Moon Team, 21st official candidate to the GLXP.[15] The team is a multidisciplinary joint venture bringing together Spanish entrepreneurial, industrial and academic capabilities. The team also includes the Centre of Aerospace Technology in Barcelona (CTAE), the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) or the international engineering advisory firm Altran. BMT wants to promote a widening involvement of private initiative in the development of space technology and industry, also including sectors such as exploration and tourism.