According to Ehricke, the Astropolis could host 1,100 guests at a time, but due to the transportation and maintenance costs, the hotel would only turn a profit of about $5 per guest, per day. Some areas of the hotel would be rotating at different speeds than others, allowing for different gravity environments that would mimic the feeling of being on the Moon or Mars, for example. Unlike Hilton’s design, Ehricke’s space hotel would be rotating to produce artificial gravity. Immediately following Hilton’s presentation, the German rocket engineer Krafft Ehricke took the stage and outlined his own plan for an orbital space hotel, which he had taken to calling the Astropolis. But if fate won’t cooperate with me, you can bet your last dollar that one of my sons will be a part of the Hilton Hotel System in outer space.” It seems that others also took Hilton seriously, as evidenced by Hilton’s reference to an East Coast travel agent who was taking $10 down payments on reservations for the Lunar Hilton in the mid-’60s. “Perhaps even soon enough for me to officiate at the formal opening of the first. “I firmly believe that we are going to have Hiltons in outer space,” he told the American Astronautical Society. While Hilton’s plans for lunar hotels may seem a little ambitious by today’s standards, he was, by all accounts, very serious about trying to make them a reality. In the Galaxy Lounge, lunar tourists would be able to “enjoy a martini and see the stars!” Although the lounge would be underground, the guests would enjoy a view of Earth and outer space through “thermopane windows.” All cocktails would be prepared by a robotic wait staff, which would only need to drop a tablet into a glass of pure ethyl alcohol and water and voila: an instant martini, Manhattan, or gin. “If you think we are not going to have a cocktail lounge, you don’t know Hilton - or travelers,” Hilton quipped. The crown jewel of the Lunar Hilton would, of course, be its Galaxy Lounge. Their rooms would use artificial lighting that mimicked Earth’s sunlight and would include a “wall-to-wall television for programs from Earth and for views of outer space.” Moreover, the guests of the Lunar Hilton will “not dine on vitamin or nutrient capsules,” but will instead “eat just as they eat at home.” This would involve shipping dehydrated, freeze-dried steaks from Earth, which would then be reconstituted in a “nuclear-reactor kitchen.” Here, machines would do most of the cooking - a chef would “push several buttons the machines will automatically remove the contents from packages, rehydrate, and heat, if necessary.” Instead, each room would have plenty of space, carpets, drapes, and plants.

Hotel mogul level 14