Wealthy adventure seekers can now book a vacation on the moon through a California-based start-up, which plans to open a hotel on Earth's celestial companion by 2032. The aspiring space tourists have to put down a hefty deposit of $1,000,000 to be among the first to visit what the company claims will be "the first-ever permanent off-Earth structure."
Galactic Resource Utilization Space (GRU), founded by Berkeley graduate Skyler Chan, launched their booking website Monday (Jan. 12), unveiling details of the hotel's architecture. The company said in a statement they would use "a proprietary habitation modules system and automated process for transforming lunar soil into durable structures" to meet the ambitious deadline. Construction is expected to begin in 2029, the company added, pending regulatory approval.
The hotel's early clientele are expected to be participants of previous commercial space flights and rich, adventurous newlyweds looking for an out-of-this-world honeymoon experience. The company believes that tourism is key for enabling the lunar economy to fully take off, providing "the fastest path for humanity to become interplanetary."
"We live during an inflection point where we can actually become interplanetary before we die," Chan said in the statement. "If we succeed, billions of human lives will be born on the moon and Mars and be able to experience the beauty of lunar and martian life."
Chan is a 21-year-old graduate in electrical engineering and computer sciences from the University of California Berkeley and developed the moon hotel idea as part of the start-up accelerator Y-Combinator. Chan said he has raised funds for the project from investors behind SpaceX and Anduril, a company developing autonomous defence systems.
A permanent base on the moon is part of the vision for the U.S. expansion in space spearheaded by the new NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman with support of President Donald Trump. Chan hopes GRU can play a role in making those plans a reality.
The company has also released a white paper outlining a strategy for the expansion of humankind's presence on the moon starting with the high-end hotel and expanding into a wider settlement.
"I've been obsessed with space since I was a kid," Chan said. "I've always wanted to become an astronaut, and feel extremely fortunate to be doing my life's work."
