From 28 to 30 September Marbella (Malaga) celebrates World Summit on Space and Underwater Tourism (SUTUS), the world’s first space and underwater tourism event. Interesting projects space hotel according to the company’s project OrbitalAssembly.
The company was born with a very clear goal: to make space accessible to everyone. Although today the International Space Station (ISS) is starting to receive its first civilian visits, its facilities are almost entirely devoted to research. And even in the case of civilians sent there for the first time by the company Axiom Cosmosthey will have to deal with obstacles created by microgravity.
Therefore what you want Orbital Assembly with his space hotel to give travelers more comfortable space. It would be possible to conduct private investigations there, but it would also be possible to go on vacation. Offices will even be made available to companies that want to do some kind of business there. The comfort of the furniture would make the rooms more like a resort than a research center. But above all, the greatest consolation will be provided artificial gravity. Gravity derived from the wheeled form of this curious space hotel.
Why is artificial gravity so necessary?
When the human body is exposed microgravity or weightlessnessyou have a lot of problems to solve. They range from changes in the microbiome to the appearance of kidney stones, causing, among other things, muscle atrophy, vision problems, and a phenomenon known as spatial adaptation syndrome. The latter is characterized by symptoms such as nausea, headache, fatigue, vomiting, and nasal congestion. In addition, we must not forget about the violation of the redistribution of fluid in the body. This can interfere with relatively expendable tasks like ejaculation, but it also interferes with much more important tasks like distributing blood throughout the body.
Fortunately, the human body adapts to all this. As the COO of Orbital Assembly explained in one of his speeches at SUTUS, Tim Alatorre, some of these adaptations are immediate. However, most require from a month to a month and a half. This may be acceptable for trained astronauts. But not for those who are just taking a business or pleasure trip. The Orbital Assembly team has been looking for a solution to this problem for years. And finally they found a solution with design wheel moduleswhose spin favors non-uniform artificial gravitywhich depends on where each person is.
Space hotel and research center
Already at the end of the 19th century, they started talking about how to get artificial gravity. Early calculations led to the conclusion that this could be achieved by rotary motion. To understand this, we can imagine bucket with water. If we knock it over, of course, water will spill. However, if we turn it upside down, while rotating it very quickly, we will see how the water moves towards the walls of the vessel without leaving it. One could see as if a fictitious force of gravity was pushing the fluid against these walls.
The level of this attraction will vary depending on two variables: the speed at which it moves and its size. So, playing with that, scientists have been trying for years to figure out what this ideal space station might look like, where microgravity is not an issue.
And that’s just the key to the space hotel in Orbital Assembly. In fact, the company intends to start with the launch of two installations, consisting of wheels of different sizes, which move at a speed adapted to their size.
Two types of space hotels
The smaller of the two types of space hotels is Pioneersmall wheel, which is expected to be able to accommodate 28 people, counting crew and tourists or explorers. As for the largest wheel, christened Voyager, it was possible to stay in it. 300 people at the same time. The cars that brought tourists there will be tied to the station, which will be in constant rotation.
Both stations have the feature that artificial gravity will approach at parts closer to the walls, and microgravity will be felt closer to the center. Going back to the cube, the water affected by the circling will be on the walls. There you could go to the dining room of the hotel or take a walk, admiring the views. In the center, it was possible to conduct experiments in microgravity conditions.
However, there will be more comfort in Voyager. Pioneer will limit this artificial gravity to showers or dining roomsso guests can eat while sitting and the food does not float in the air.
But the smallest also has the advantage that it can be ready much sooner. According to Alatorre, they expect to be able to launch the first module during two years. Instead, for Voyager we have to wait until 2027. This is a slow process, as the wheel cannot be thrown all at once, but piecemeal. Thus, the larger the space hotel, the longer it will take to be ready.
In the meantime, the entire Orbital Assembly team continues to look for funding and staff to join the project. A project that right now seems to be taken from an episode For all mankind, but which is becoming closer and closer to reality. Drinking champagne while looking at the little pale blue dot that is the Earth will not forever remain science fiction.
Source: Hiper Textual
