The moon: better than a Premier InnJANET RAMSDEN

When we first landed on the moon, it was pretty exciting stuff. Such a huge breakthrough in space travel understandably led to high hopes that people would regularly return, and that more and more would visit until it became a standard holiday destination. Out came books and films with a vision of a galaxy colonised by humans, where anyone who fancied a change of scenery need only hop into a spaceship and within minutes they’d find themselves landing on some distant planet. The optimism was adorable; seriously, we can’t even fly across our own seas without hours of standing around, getting herded through security and waiting for luggage, all the while surrounded by increasingly disgruntled family members.

So far, companies like Virgin Galactic, “the world’s first commercial spaceline”, have had a hard time taking off. As of yet, no private company has sent astronauts into orbit. But given the vast amounts of money that are being poured into these projects, it seems only a matter of time before wealthy thrill-seekers are cruising through space on the holiday of a lifetime. And those pursuing this starry-eyed dream are already thinking about the next big step: hotels in space.

So how do you make a hotel in space? Apparently, by printing one. For the past few years the European Space Agency has been exploring the possibilities of 3D printing buildings on the moon. In one of the designs an inflatable dome is covered with printed layers of lunar soil, which form an incredibly strong but also very lightweight shell around the dwelling, protecting inhabitants from radiation and extreme temperatures. The end product looks a bit like something out of Minecraft. 3D printers have made the prospect of towns on the moon much more feasible, as these robots are a hell of a lot easier to transport, and could build using the moon’s natural materials.

The chance to stay in a lunar hotel is something few of us would turn down. You’d wake up hundreds of thousands of miles from Earth to absolutely unforgettable views, and get to venture out into a world which only a handful of people have ever explored before.

But let’s be honest. Is this really the best place for a summer getaway? It’s a bit dark in space. And I’m not knocking the moon, it’s pretty spectacular, but that’s because it’s the moon and not because it’s especially nice to look at. In fact, as landscapes go, it’s fairly bleak. More to the point, in these lunar hotels, alcohol would be banned. So in many ways you might have a better night staying in a Premier Inn.

It almost seems that the more uninhabitable an environment is, the greater our desire to transform it into our own personal playground. We’ve got hotels underwater, underground, in the desert – so why not put one in space? After all, clearly the best thing space has to offer us isn’t resources or the chance to distribute some of our growing population, but a decent holiday for a few minted celebs.

Space travel will never be as accessible to the masses as many in the twentieth century dreamed it would be. But for those who really can’t wait to get closer to space, there is a (slightly) cheaper alternative – costing around fifty grand as opposed to several million pounds – and that is near-space flight. World View is set to launch in 2016 and boasts a voyaging experience like no another – an opportunity to sail across the stratosphere. Travellers step into a capsule suspended below a high-altitude balloon, which gently ascends until it reaches the very edge of our atmosphere. From here you’ll be able to enjoy breath-taking views of the curvature of the planet – and way better refreshments than those you’d get in a space hotel.