WELCOME to your holiday destination: the Moon. After landing at the
spaceport, a surface shuttle will whisk you to your hotel, the Moon鈥檚 first. Its
two needle-like towers soar over the rim of a deep canyon, and between them
you鈥檒l see Earth rising. Enjoy the view. Enjoy low gravity. Enjoy your stay.
It鈥檚 still fantasy, but maybe not for long. Hans-Jurgen Rombaut of the
Rotterdam Academy of Architecture in the Netherlands has designed a lunar hotel
that for the first time exploits the unique conditions on the Moon鈥� and
the building materials available there. The hotel could be up and running by
2050. 鈥淭aking into account all the weird circumstances on the Moon was a
tremendous challenge,鈥� Rombaut says. 鈥淭his has never been done before at this
level of detail.鈥�
Rombaut鈥檚 hotel is a far cry from your average establishment鈥攊n fact,
he prefers to call it a 鈥渟ensation engine鈥�. The hotel鈥檚 two slanting towers,
each 160 metres high, will provide tourists space to indulge in 鈥渓ow-gravity
games鈥� such as indoor mountaineering, abseiling and 鈥渇lying鈥� using special suits
with bat-like wings.
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Suspended from the Moon-rock backbones of the towers will be teardrop-shaped
鈥渉abitation capsules鈥� designed to look like small spaceships, so that guests
will feel as if they鈥檙e still travelling, says Rombaut. Each capsule will have
its own supply of fresh water and a rubbish and sewage disposal unit that will
be changed every day by the hotel staff.
Visitors will be encouraged to walk to the restaurants at the top of the
towers instead of using elevators, helping avoid muscle deterioration during
their two-week stay.
The low gravity鈥攐ne-sixth of the Earth鈥檚鈥攁nd the absence of wind
were a boon for the architect: he was able to design a much more slender and
fragile-looking building than would have been possible on Earth. But keeping the
harsh lunar environment out was quite another matter. Temperatures vary between
100 掳C and 鈥�150 掳C, and lethal cosmic rays and solar particles
bombard the lunar surface, unimpeded by the ultra-thin atmosphere.
To shield the interior from this onslaught, Rombaut designed a
50-centimetre-thick hull. It consists of two outer layers of Moon rock and a
35-centimetre layer of water held between glass panes. The water absorbs
energetic particles and helps keep the temperature constant, and the Moon rock
provides further protection. Windows are formed simply from holes in the
Moon-rock layer. Thanks to the low gravity, the hull will weigh less than a
7-centimetre-thick layer of concrete on Earth, says Rombaut.
The cost of launching tonnes of steel and water to the Moon is clearly a
hurdle. 鈥淎s much as possible has to be manufactured on the Moon itself, using
existing minerals and ores,鈥� says Rombaut. It is possible that there are large
amounts of water on the Moon, stored as ice in craters near the south pole that
stay permanently in shadow.
Bernard Foing at the European Space Research and Technology Centre in
Noordwijk says Rombaut鈥檚 design is the most detailed proposed so far. 鈥淭he most
recent knowledge about the Moon has been taken into account,鈥� he says. Foing is
also chairman of the Lunar Explorers Society, a group of space buffs who hope to
construct a robot Moon base by 2015, followed by a manned base by 2020 and a
real lunar village by 2040. 鈥淭his hotel would fit very well in our scheme,鈥� he
says.
Rombaut hopes that millionaire Dennis Tito鈥檚 recent tourist flight to the
International Space Station will kick off the era of space tourism. But even
half a century from now, visitors will still need deep pockets, Rombaut says, as
a two-week stay in his low-gravity leisure centre will probably cost as much as
a mortgage on a house.
