The space tourism industry is heating up. While the Galactic Suite, the first hotel planned in space, expects to open for business in 2012, a team of students have unveiled plans for a new international space hotel as part of their Masters degree in the Innovation Design Engineering (IDE) course that’s run together by Imperial College London and the Royal College of Art. The hotel is intended to be built in space and fitted to the International Space Station. They have showcased a 12-meter-long replica of the hotel interior, along with the animated designs. The toilets have been designed to save space, counteract zero gravity and help human muscles to remove waste effectively. To avoid the possibility of water being left floating as globules, they designed a shower nozzle that can suck up the water after the washing is done. Clothes for the space tourists were made using natural fibers, and they come with small chest flaps to let the air pass in to keep the body cool.
Space architecture expert Daniele Bedini, who worked with the students, said…
Designing a building that is floating hundreds of miles above Earth throws up all kinds of engineering challenges. From personal hygiene to sleeping in zero gravity, we encouraged the students to be completely creative with their solutions so that the living conditions in the world’s most isolated hotel could be as comfortable as possible.
To address the problem of sleeping in zero gravity, students designed single and double sleeping bags. These sleeping bags are big warm cocoons with soft elastic covers. To make the whole trip memorable for the tourists, they also devised a “floating camera” that can move independently in space and capture the unforgettable moments. Space travel is getting closer to reality day by day.
Via: ScienceDaily
