Most of us will never have the opportunity to leave our home planet but for a select few with incredibly deep pockets, it could soon be a reality.
Several outfits including SpaceX, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic have expressed interest in space tourism. In exchange for a hefty fee, these companies aim to take passengers on a once-in-a-lifetime (albeit brief) trip to the edge of space.
That'd be "good enough" for most but not Russia.
According to a detailed proposal seen by Popular Mechanics, Russia is interested in building a luxury hotel in space. The proposed facility would consist of a 20-ton, 15.5-meter-long module with 92 cubic meters of pressurized space that'd attach to the International Space Station.
The Russian hotel would offer four sleeping quarters (roughly two cubic meters each) as well as two hygiene and medical stations of the same volume. Each room would feature a porthole window and there'd even be amenities like exercise equipment and Wi-Fi (for the price, there had better be some perks).
A trip lasting up to two weeks would sell for a whopping $40 million per person. For an additional $20 million, you can stay aboard the space hotel for up to a month and even have the opportunity to join an astronaut on a spacewalk.
If you're looking for a five-star adventure, this certainly sounds worthy of consideration... that is, if it ever gets built.
According to the write-up, the ISS is scheduled to be retired in 2028 and it is estimated that it'd take at least five years to build the hotel module. If work started right away, that'd leave just five years or so for the hotel to generate revenue and pay for itself before shutting down. Throw in an unforeseen delay or two and suddenly, you're crunched for time.