2018 appears to be the year that space exploration makes a comeback.

Adding to the list of billionaires who are keen to cash in on space travel is Robert Bigelow, who made his billions from the hotel chain Budget Suites of America.

Speaking on Tuesday, Bigelow officially launched a new spaceflight company called Bigelow Space Operations (BSO), reports Business Insider:

Bigelow, age 72, founded Bigelow Aerospace in 1999. That company develops space hardware and built an inflatable room, called the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, which NASA attached to the International Space Station in 2016.

But the hotel mogul wants to outdo NASA with his own “monster” space station, using BSO to “commercialise space”:

In 2021, BSO plans to launch two 55-foot-long inflatable modules, called B330-1 and B330-2, that link together to form a private space station. The new company wants to sell time aboard to countries in need of orbital laboratory space, as well as multi-million-dollar reservations to tourists seeking the trip (and hotel stay) of a lifetime.

Look, look, look:

Yes, CrossFit friends, it has ‘fitness equipment’.

Pretty cool, hey?

“These single structures that house humans on a permanent basis will be the largest, most complex structures ever known as stations for human use in space,” the company said in a press release.

BSO will market this service in “low-Earth orbit”, which is the zone about 250 miles above Earth, to nations, corporations, and space tourists:

“From a human-use perspective, we’re at the very, very early beginnings of this,” Bigelow told reporters during a call on Tuesday.

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.

The units are “so diverse and so large,” Bigelow’s release said, “that they can accommodate virtually unlimited use almost anywhere.”

Okay then.

And the cost? Well, depending on the prices that SpaceX and other companies will charge for flights, the per-passenger cost could be in the “low seven figures” (that’s a million and up), though most likely in the “low eight figures”.

In US dollars – ouch.

Just for comparison, NASA currently pays Russia about $81 million (R947 million) per round-trip to the ISS for its astronauts.

Casual.

[source:businessinsider]