First commercial space station for tourism featured in an epic new trailer

The rotating space station will allow for tourism as well as low-gravity needed for scientific experiments.

Tech2 News Staff|Feb 18, 2019, 19:29:05 IST

“The future is in rotation.”At least that’s what the Gateway Foundation will have you believe for their newest project: the world’s first commercial space station orbiting the moon.A brainchild of a former Boeing pilot John Blincow and retired NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory architect Tom Spilker, the rotating station, called the Von Braun Rotating Space Station, would allow for space tourism as well as low-gravity environments for scientific experiments conducted by national space agencies.The concept is explained by the President of the Gateway Foundation in a new YouTube video.

The spaceport looks like something straight of a sci-fi series – a futuristic vision of what a visit to space for a holiday might look like.The gateway has five gates that are connected to the transport hub, where shuttles from the Earth and Moon can dock to the port."It will allow us to take our first steps toward colonizing the Moon, Mars, and ultimately, will usher in a new age of exploration as we travel throughout our solar system and discover what lies beyond," the Foundation’s website reads. Also part of the concept is a Hilton space hotel module.[caption id="attachment_6107351" align="alignnone" width="1280"]

Screengrab of the Gateway's concept. Image: Youtube/Gateway Foundation[/caption]The rotating nature of the spaceport will allow an adjustable degree of gravity at the station depending on the needs of space tourists, astronauts and researchers onboard at any given time.But will the station ever get built?The Gateway is an ambitious plan that needs an astronomical amount of funding to get built. And while NASA has its own plans for the Deep Space Gateway, which is slated for assembly in 2024, commercial space travel is a whole different ballgame.Apart from commercial investors, the Gateway has also opened doors to private investors as part of an “annual membership”. Members of the Gateway Foundation get informational emails, updates, event discounts and a chance to win a free trip to the Gateway.

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