Space hotel
If you have a few million dollars to spare, you could be spending your holidays in the near future, relaxing in a space hotel, 250 miles above the earth. Unfortunately, I don't have a million dollars, so I'll continue to spend my holidays here on earth.
Read the article below about plans to build a space hotel and complete the summary with the following seven words.
project / modules / users / hotel / tourists / investors / governments
Robert Bigelow is planning to build the first space ______ consisting of two _________ each containing room for six people. The main ________ of the hotel are expected to be _________ but the space hotel will also be available to wealthy _________. Bigelow is concerned however that potential ________ may be attracted to a Chinese space _________ planned to launch in 2022.
Billionaire hotel mogul Robert Bigelow has plans to construct the first space hotel. Through his company Bigelow Aerospace, founded in 1999, the stargazer is creating a line of B330 ‘fully autonomous standalone space stations’. Bigelow is planning to build two 55-foot (17-metre) long, 22-foot (seven-metre) wide independent modules that will link together to create the ‘space hotel’ and offer double the cubic capacity of the current International Space Station (ISS). The B330s can operate in low earth orbit (around 250 miles up) and will eventually form part of a ‘monster’ space station.
Bigelow’s primary plans are to sell time aboard to governments in need of orbital laboratory space, as well as multi-million-dollar reservations to tourists seeking the trip (and hotel stay) of a lifetime.
Bigelow's B330 space station modules can hold about six people. They would launch in a folded-up state, then be inflated with breathable air once deployed into orbit. Their thick white shields, made of impact-absorbing materials, would protect against space debris and radiation.
Bigelow believes that China may be a threat to his plans to establish private space hotels and laboratories, Many of the 17 investment partners behind the $150-billion International Space Station are being systematically courted to invest in a new orbital laboratory that China may launch as soon as 2022.
Bigelow made his billions by founding the Budget Suites of America hotel chain in 1987, but his real focus was always on the stars. At just 12 years old, he resolved that his future was in space travel and so decided to ‘choose a career that would make him rich enough that, one day, he could hire the scientific expertise required to launch his own space program’.
Full story: Duncan Madden. https://www.forbes.com/sites/duncanmadden/2018/03/09/mankinds-first-space-hotel-is-coming-in-2021-probably/#2d7c89e65bed
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