They plan to build hotels on the Moon

A startup from San Francisco (California) GRU Space has announced plans to build the first hotels on the Moon and expects to start sending tourists there as early as 2032.

This is stated on the company's website.

The company justifies its goals by noting that the cost of launching cargo into orbit has significantly decreased in recent years thanks to SpaceX's activities. GRU Space expects that space cargo launches will continue to become cheaper due to growing competition in the market, including from Blue Origin and numerous startups and projects with their own returnable rockets in other countries around the world. Additionally, the company points out that space is already becoming a tourist destination for wealthy people, as they are willing to pay for "super-premium class tourist services, while opportunities for this on Earth are becoming exhausted."

"Clients will travel on licensed commercial spacecraft operated by providers such as SpaceX or Blue Origin [...], and GRU will coordinate the flight program and operations on the [Moon's] surface. We will adapt training preparation and medical examinations to partner standards, provide mission preparation, flight planning, and risk coverage for unforeseen circumstances to guarantee clients impeccable conditions for flying to the Moon and back," the company assures.

In the initial stages, hotels will be delivered along with tourists to the surface of Earth's satellite; these will be inflatable modules designed for two to four people. With three flights per year, the cost per tourist will be $416,000, the company claims. Further plans include building more complex structures using materials from both Earth and the Moon's surface. Such hotels, whose design is inspired by the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, will be able to accommodate 10 guests, and the cost of a "trip" could decrease to $83,000. Preparatory flights to test technologies are already planned for 2029 and 2031.

GRU Space company (full name - Galactic Resource Utilization Space) was founded by Skyler Chan, a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley. According to the science and technology portal ArsTechnica, the startup has secured funding from business incubator Y Combinator, but the investment amount has not been disclosed. GRU Space's website has begun accepting applications for possible participation in future missions, with preliminary registration costing $1,000.