- Bored with the beach? Find ski-ing an
uphill struggle? Worry no more, for in just a few years' time the ultimate
vacation could be yours with a two-week trip to space.
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- For decades people have been fantasising
about life out in space, but so far it is only actors in programmes such
as Star Trek or the film 2001: A Space Odyssey who have been able to fulfil
that dream.
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- But if the proposal of an American company
comes to fruition, in as little as five years, hundreds of people could
be blasting off into space to experience unique views and an unusual feeling
of weightlessness.
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- Californian firm the Space Island Group
is proposing holidays in its revolving space hotel which would be made
out of discarded fuel tanks from the space shuttle.
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- The fuel tanks - which normally burn
up in the atmosphere - would be linked together to form a wheel. If the
wheel is made to spin, this will give it artificial gravity, meaning that
paying customers will be able to walk around normally - and not spill any
drinks.
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- A Space Island wheel rotating once every
minute has an added bonus for guests: it would give them the feeling of
weighing half their normal Earth weight.
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- The recycled tanks, known as ETs, would
be fitted with a small engine to prevent them falling into the atmosphere
and 12 of them would be joined together to form the space station.
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- The structure would house the luxury
hotel that could accommodate 350 guests and 50 staff.
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- For those seeking an extra-terrestrial
vacation, the trips will not be cheap. Space Island Group has done its
sums and come up with a bill of £15,000 for a two-week stay.
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- It is now trying to persuade companies
such as British Airways and the Hilton hotel chain to come in on the scheme.
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- The space hotel might seem like a revolutionary
idea but science fiction writer Arthur C Clarke came up with a similar
structure in his 2001: A Space Odyssey.
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- He is in favour of the project. "A
rotating space station as we showed in 2001 would give you artificial gravity,
so you could walk around normally and having weight helps a lot when you're
trying to pour liquids.
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- "But of course at the centre there'd
be no such feeling so you could have weightlessness at the centre and normal
weight at the rim. The best of both worlds," he said.
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- Astronauts have themselves tried previously
to create a space hotel. Some years ago they transformed a rocket shell
into a makeshift space station called Skylab where they would stay for
weeks on end.
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- The average discarded fuel tank is not
as big as the Skylab, but if several are joined together, there is enough
room for several hundred people.
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- Mr Clarke says something of a tidy-up
is needed in space before the hotel goes into construction.
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- "I'm rather worried about space
getting cluttered up. Already there are thousands of satellites up there
and big space hotels will be joining them.
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- "This is quite a serious problem
because all these bits are moving very fast and we're going to have to
do a big clean-up operation before it'll be really safe."
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