A company called GRU Space publicly announced its intention to build a series of increasingly advanced habitats on the moon, culminating in a hotel inspired by San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts.
On Monday, the company invited those interested in a berth to put down a deposit of between $250,000 and $1 million, qualifying them for a spot on one of the first lunar surface missions in just six years.
It sounds crazy, doesn't it? After all, when I spoke to founder Skyler Chan in late December, GRU Space had one full-time employee besides himself. And Chan, in fact, only recently graduated from the University of California, Berkeley.
All this could therefore be dismissed as a joke. But I have to say I'm a sucker for these types of stories. Chan is completely serious about this. And despite all the talk about the moon's resources, I believe that the surest long-term commercial activity on the moon will be lunar tourism – it would be a great destination.
So when I interviewed Chan, I did so with an open mind.
Who are the customers?
Like many younger people, Chan grew up wanting to become an astronaut. But gradually, through high school and later college, he came to believe that he could live a more impactful life by empowering everyone to go to space, not just himself.
“I realized that I was born in this time where we can actually become interplanetary, and that is probably the most impactful thing anyone can do with their time,” Chan said. “So I set out to build the systems and technology necessary to make that future possible. That's actually why I went to Berkeley to study electrical engineering and computer science.”
