• 2 day ago

A US startup has started selling tickets to hotels on the Moon, starting at $250,000.

American startup Galactic Resource Utilization Space (GRU Space) announced it is accepting deposits for hotel rooms on the lunar surface. Potential clients are being offered deposits ranging from $250,000 to $1 million to participate in one of the first lunar missions, according to ArsTechnica.

The project is planned to be completed within six years of its launch, or by 2032.

GRU Space's founder is Skyler Chan, a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley. During an internship at Tesla, he noticed that space programs were primarily focused on government agencies and were inaccessible to the general public. He believes lunar tourism could radically change this situation.

The company employs one other person in addition to Chan. Despite this, the startup has raised seed funding from the investment group Y Combinator.

"I realized that I was born at a time when we can truly go beyond the planet, and this is perhaps the most significant thing humans can do in our time," Chan said.

The project envisions the phased construction of habitable modules on the Moon. The first demonstration flight is scheduled for 2029: a 10-kilogram module will be delivered to the Moon to test construction materials and an inflatable structure. In 2031, the inflatable module is planned to be placed in a lunar ravine. By 2032, the company expects to have created the first four-person habitable module, with reservations already available.

GRU Space plans to build a full-fledged lunar hotel, using primarily local materials.

A similar scheme could eventually be implemented on Mars.