Space Polyps

What?

Galactic Suite began as a hobby for former aerospace engineer Claramunt, until a space enthusiast decided to make the science fiction fantasy a reality by fronting most of the $3 billion needed to build the hotel.

An American company intent on colonizing Mars, which sees Galaxy Suite as a first step, has since come on board, and private investors from Japan, the United States and the United Arab Emirates are in talks.

Perhaps the right question is “Who?”. It’s unlikely to be Robert Bigelow, since he’s got his own space hotel program in the works. It could be Elon Musk, but it sounds like this backer is a bit wealther than he is if the guy can afford to drop $3B (or a substantial portion of it) on this project. Paul Allen could probably afford it, but why then isn’t his own launcher shown as the access vehicle? Dennis Tito? Charles Simonyi? Someone else?

Or is it just a powerpoint project? I suspect the latter, especially after looking over the company’s website. And especially after seeing their images of the hotel…unless the thing is carring a small, well-shielded nuke in one of its polyps, power is going to be a problem, as is the active thermal control required to handle all that “intimate activity” going on inside…not to mention stationkeeping…and adequate communications…and MMOD protection (especially with those gigantic windows).