Lunar Hilton

Last updated

The Lunar Hilton is a proposed hotel on the Moon, which would be operated by the Hilton Hotels company. Rumours of the concept began with a space-themed event held by the company in Chicago in 1958 and the idea was adopted by Barron Hilton in the 1960s. A proposal was made for a 100-room underground hotel on the Moon's surface as well as a 24-room space station. The concept was promoted with reservation cards and mock room keys. The concept was revived in the 1990s with plans drawn up for a 5,000-room hotel and a space station constructed from recycled Space Shuttle fuel tanks. Commentators have speculated that the concept might be more of a public relations campaign than a real plan, though in 2022 the company became involved with the Starlab Space Station project.

Contents

1950s through 1970s

The first rumors of a Lunar Hilton began with an August 1958 event at the Conrad Hilton Hotel in Chicago. [1] The event featured dancers performing a routine entitled "out of this world" and set in a Hilton hotel on the Moon. At the time the Space Race between the United States and the USSR had just begun: the event came less than a year after the launch of Sputnik 1 and predated the creation of NASA. The event led to reports in the contemporary press that Hilton Hotels were planning to construct a hotel on the Moon. It is not known if Conrad Hilton seriously adopted the idea but a March 1963 profile of him in Cosmopolitan noted "it won’t be very long before our astronauts land on the Moon and immediately behind them will be Connie Hilton with his plans for his Lunar Hilton Hotel". [2]

According to Mark Young, curator of the Conrad Hilton archive at the University of Houston, it was his son Barron Hilton who first acted on the idea of a Lunar Hilton. [2] Barron was a keen aviator with piloting experience in planes, gliders, helicopters and hot air balloons and regularly met with astronauts. [3] By 1967, when he was 39 years old and president of the company, he told the Wall Street Journal that he anticipated opening a hotel on the Moon within his lifetime. In the article he described a 100-room hotel below the Moon's surface with an observation dome holding a piano bar from which the Earth could be viewed. [2]

On May 2 Barron Hilton spoke at the American Astronomical Society (AAS), telling them "scarcely a day goes by when someone doesn't ask me, jovially, when the Lunar Hilton is going to be opened. They’re joking, of course – but I don’t see it as a joke at all". [4] He considered that the structure would be built 20–30 feet (6.1–9.1 m) underground to cope with the widely fluctuating surface temperatures. It would have had three floors; the lowest housing machinery, the middle providing accommodation and the upper public spaces. [3] The accommodation was formed on two 400-foot (120 m) long corridors, connected by air locks, providing access to 100 rooms. [5] [3] The rooms were designed to be similar to those in Hilton Hotels on Earth and were to be "large with carpets, and drapes and plants ... [and] wall-to-wall television for programs from Earth and for views of outer space". [6] [3] There would also be an automated kitchen, powered by a nuclear reactor, and a cocktail lounge. [3] The hotel would have an automatic leak repair system. [5]

Lunar Hilton key and fob Lunar Hilton key and fob.jpg
Lunar Hilton key and fob

During his speech Barron Hilton noted that a feasibility study had been made in conjunction with Donald Wills Douglas Sr., founder of the Douglas Aircraft Company. [3] This had also considered a hotel orbiting the Earth, the Orbital Hilton, which was thought to be more achievable. [7] This would have had 14 levels and be capable of hosting 24 people for short holidays or stopovers en-route to the Moon. [3] Barron Hilton told the AAS "I firmly believe that we are going to have hotels in outer space, perhaps even soon enough for me to officiate at the formal opening of the first". [2]

To promote the concept Hilton printed reservation cards for customers and received hundreds of enquiries. [2] The cards featured a depiction of a satellite above the Moon and asked the customer for their preference of a single or double room or a "cloud suite". The cards also offered the option of a transfer to the "intergalactic express". [5] The reservation noted that arrival dates must be "after 1980". [3] As well as the cards, mock keys to Lunar Hilton rooms were distributed to Hilton hotels as promotional items, these were traditional keys in a "sleek" style. [2]

The Lunar Hilton concept was revived in 1969 as the first Moon landings took place. [2] In 1973 Hilton partnered with Trans International Airlines (TIA) to produce a brochure inviting customers to a trip to the Moon "sometime after 1973". The brochure stated benefits of the trip included "a smogfree atmosphere, no rain or snow, no breath of wind and profound silence". A TIA spokesperson said costs could be up to $25,000 per person. [8]

1990s revival

The concept was revived in the late 1990s. [9] [10] [11] Hilton commissioned British architect Peter Inston to design a 5,000-room hotel on the Moon. The company's president, Peter George, said "One day soon, there will be hotels on the Moon. The Hilton wants to be the first". [2] The company separately became lead sponsor of Space Islands, a planned space station constructed from recycled Space Shuttle fuel tanks and providing a 64-room hotel. Blueprints for the space station were drawn up by Japanese firm Shimzu. [5] Bigelow Aerospace had plans to develop the CSS Skywalker , a space station based upon using B330 modules to act as an orbital hotel. [12]

Impact and future

Commentators have speculated that the Lunar Hilton concept was just a PR campaign rather than firm plans. [2] Conrad Hilton's grandson Steven M. Hilton said, in 2009, the Lunar Hilton was meant to be symbolic of the company's ambitions rather than a firm plan. [2] Hilton Hotels continues to participate in space projects. In October 2022 it joined the Starlab Space Station project as official hotel partner. The intent was that Hilton would assist with the design of the crew areas of Starlab. Previously Hilton became the first hotel company to participate in research on the International Space Station when their chocolate chip cookie became the first food to be baked in space. [13]

The Lunar Hilton concept has had an influence on popular culture. A 1962 episode of The Jetsons , "The Good Little Scouts", briefly shows a Moonhattan Tilton, a reference to the Manhattan Hilton hotel, on the Moon. [2] The 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey features a scene in the lounge of a Hilton space hotel and an office marked Hilton Space Station 5 is visible. [2] [3] A "Moon Hilton" is also featured in the 1969 film Moon Zero Two and its adaption into a novel by John Burke. [14] An episode of the 2009 season of Mad Men , set in a 1960s advertising company, shows the character Don Draper creating a campaign for a Hilton hotel on the Moon. [2]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hilton Worldwide</span> American multinational hospitality company

Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. is an American multinational hospitality company that manages and franchises a broad portfolio of hotels and resorts. Founded by Conrad Hilton in May 1919, the company is now led by Christopher J. Nassetta. Hilton is headquartered in Tysons, Virginia, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hilton Hotels & Resorts</span> Hotels and resorts company

Hilton Hotels & Resorts is a global brand of full-service hotels and resorts and the flagship brand of American multinational hospitality company Hilton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conrad Hilton</span> American hotelier (1887–1979)

Conrad Nicholson Hilton was an American businessman who founded the Hilton Hotels chain. From 1912 to 1916, Hilton was a Republican representative in the first New Mexico Legislature, but became disillusioned with the "inside deals" of politics. In 1919, he purchased his first hotel, the Mobley Hotel in Cisco, Texas, for $40,000, and subsequently capitalized on the oil boom. The rooms were rented out in 8 hour shifts. He continued to buy and sell hotels, and eventually established the world's first international hotel chain. When he died in 1979, he left the bulk of his estate to the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barron Hilton</span> American hotelier (1927–2019)

William Barron Hilton was an American business magnate, philanthropist and sportsman. The second son and successor of hotelier Conrad Hilton, he was the chairman, president and chief executive officer of Hilton Hotels Corporation and chairman emeritus of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. Hilton, a notable pilot and outdoorsman, was also a founder of the American Football League as the original owner of the Los Angeles Chargers, and helped forge the merger with the National Football League that created the Super Bowl. Like his father before him, he pledged 97 percent of his wealth to the humanitarian work of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. At the time, the gift was projected to increase the foundation's endowment from $2.9 billion to $6.3 billion, and will make his estate the organization's most significant donor.

Bigelow Aerospace is an American aeronautics and outer space technology company which manufactures and develops expandable space station modules. Bigelow Aerospace was founded by Robert Bigelow in 1998, and is based in North Las Vegas, Nevada. It is funded in large part by the profit Bigelow gained through his ownership of the hotel chain, Budget Suites of America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colonization of the Moon</span> Settlement on the Moon

Colonization of the Moon is a process or concept employed by some proposals for robotic or human exploitation and settlement endeavours on the Moon. Settling of the Moon is, therefore, a more specific concept of lunar habitation, for which the broader concept of colonization is often used as a synonym, a use that is contested in the light of colonialism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moonbase</span> Long-term human settlement on the Moon

A moonbase is a facility on or below the surface of the Moon, enabling human activity on the Moon. As such, it is different from a lunar space station in orbit around the Moon, like the planned Lunar Gateway of the Artemis program. Moonbases can be for robotic or human use, in both cases not necessarily including lunar habitation facilities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management</span>

The Conrad N. Hilton College of Global Hospitality Leadership is a college at the University of Houston, a public research university in Houston, Texas, focused on hospitality. It is one of 13 academic colleges at the university that offers business degrees at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Galactic Suite Design</span> Spanish aerospace design company

Galactic Suite Design is an aerospace design company based in Barcelona, Spain. The company develops concepts and designs for aerospace projects. The company became well known for its announcement of the Galactic Suite Space Resort, a cancelled plan to create an orbital space station.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Astrobotic Technology</span> American space robotics company

Astrobotic Technology is an American private company that is developing space robotics technology for lunar and planetary missions. It was founded in 2007 by Carnegie Mellon professor Red Whittaker and his associates with the goal of winning the Google Lunar X Prize. The company is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The first launch of one of its spacecraft, the Peregrine lunar lander, is expected to take place in December 2023.

The Bigelow Next-Generation Commercial Space Station was a private orbital space station under conceptual development by Bigelow Aerospace in the 2000s and 2010s. Previous concepts of the space station had included multiple modules such as two B330 expandable spacecraft modules as well as a central docking node, propulsion, solar arrays, and attached crew capsules. However it was also suggested that each B330 can operate as an independent space station. Attaching a B330 to the International Space Station or flying a B330 alone have been suggested by Robert Bigelow.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tourism on the Moon</span> Future plans to make the Moon available for tourism

Lunar tourism may be possible in the future if trips to the Moon are made available to a private audience. Some space tourism startup companies are planning to offer tourism on or around the Moon, and estimate this to be possible sometime between 2023 and 2043.

Majestic Las Vegas is a cancelled high-rise condominium project that was to be built on property previously occupied by the La Concha Motel on the Las Vegas Strip, in Winchester, Nevada. The project was announced by La Concha owner Lorenzo Doumani in February 2004. The 42-story condominium tower was to be accompanied by Hilton's Conrad Las Vegas, a Conrad-branded, 37-story hotel that would operate in a separate high-rise building on the same property. The project was initially expected to open in February 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lunar Gateway</span> Lunar orbital space station under development

The Lunar Gateway, or simply Gateway, is the first planned extraterrestrial space station. It will be placed in lunar orbit and is intended to serve as a solar-powered communication hub, science laboratory, and short-term habitation module for government-agency astronauts, as well as a holding area for rovers and other robots. It is a multinational collaborative project involving four of the International Space Station partner agencies: NASA, European Space Agency (ESA), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and Canadian Space Agency (CSA). It is planned to be both the first space station beyond low Earth orbit and the first space station to orbit the Moon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Commercial Lunar Payload Services</span> NASA program contracting commercial transportation services to the Moon

Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) is a NASA program to contract transportation services able to send small robotic landers and rovers to the Moon's south polar region mostly with the goals of scouting for lunar resources, testing in situ resource utilization (ISRU) concepts, and performing lunar science to support the Artemis lunar program. CLPS is intended to buy end-to-end payload services between Earth and the lunar surface using fixed priced contracts. The program was extended to add support for large payloads starting after 2025.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Artemis program</span> NASA-led lunar exploration program

The Artemis program is a robotic and human Moon exploration program led by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) along with six major partner agencies— the European Space Agency (ESA), the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the Israel Space Agency (ISA), and the Italian Space Agency (ASI). The Artemis program is intended to reestablish a human presence on the Moon for the first time since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. Major elements of the program include the Space Launch System (SLS), the Orion spacecraft, the Lunar Gateway space station, and the commercial Human Landing Systems. The program's long-term goal is to establish a permanent base on the Moon to facilitate the feasibility of human missions to Mars.

The International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) (Chinese: 国际月球科研站) is a planned lunar base currently being led by Roscosmos and the China National Space Administration (CNSA). The ILRS will serve as a comprehensive scientific experiment base built on the lunar surface or in lunar orbit that can carry out multi-disciplinary and multi-objective scientific research activities including exploration and utilization, lunar-based observation, basic scientific experiment and technical verification, and long-term autonomous operation. Statements from Roscosmos and CNSA underline that the project will be "open to all interested countries and international partners."

Starlab is a planned LEO space station designed by Nanoracks for commercial space activities, planned to launch in 2028.

The Commercial LEO Destinations program is a public/private partnership program of the NASA, to help facilitate the building of private space stations in low Earth orbit.

References

  1. Suburbanite Economist (August 27, 1958). "Page 18". Newspapers.com. Archived from the original on April 8, 2023. Retrieved April 8, 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Novak, Matt (November 18, 2014). "What happened to Hilton's 'hotel on the Moon'?". BBC Future. Archived from the original on March 20, 2023. Retrieved March 20, 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Prisco, Jacopo (June 8, 2021). "Hilton's bizarre 1967 plan for a space hotel". CNN. Archived from the original on March 20, 2023. Retrieved March 20, 2023.
  4. Hilton, Barron (1967). "Hotels in Space". 1967 AAS Conference Proceedings. Retrieved April 8, 2023.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Leadbeater, Chris (July 18, 2019). "The strange story of the Hilton hotel on the moon, and the serious plan to build it". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on March 20, 2023. Retrieved March 20, 2023.
  6. Benaroya, Haym (May 31, 2016). Turning Dust to Gold: Building a Future on the Moon and Mars. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 146. doi:10.1007/978-1-4419-0871-1. ISBN   978-1-4419-0871-1. Archived from the original on April 8, 2023. Retrieved March 23, 2023.
  7. Sully, Nicole; Taylor, William; O'Halloran, Sean (February 5, 2019). "Science facts and space fictions: Making room for the frontiersman, soldier, and scientist in the space laboratory". In Kaji-O'Grady, Sandra; Smith, Chris L.; Hughes, Russell (eds.). Laboratory Lifestyles: The Construction of Scientific Fictions. MIT Press. pp. 205–206. ISBN   978-0-262-03892-8. Archived from the original on April 8, 2023. Retrieved March 23, 2023.
  8. Passingham, Ian (June 30, 2019). Apollo 11: The Moon Landing in Real Time. Pen and Sword. pp. 112–113. ISBN   978-1-5267-4857-7. Archived from the original on April 8, 2023. Retrieved March 23, 2023.
  9. Gibson, Dirk; Schneller, Ashley; Garcia, Kristen; Wildsmith, Emily; Sawadya, Jennifer (June 14, 2009). The Significance of Outer Space Hotels in Development of the Space Tourism Industry. Reston, Virigina: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. doi:10.2514/6.2009-6579.
  10. Binkley, Christina. "Hilton, We Have a Problem: Lunar Resort Plans Hit a Snag". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on December 7, 2021. Retrieved April 8, 2023.
  11. Berinstein, Paula (2002). Making space happen : private space ventures and the visionaries behind them. Medford, N.J.: Plexus. ISBN   978-1-937289-98-0. OCLC   781538667.
  12. Belfiore, Michael (March 1, 2005). "The Five-Billion-Star Hotel". Popular Science.
  13. Davis-Friedman, Samantha (October 16, 2022). "Voyager Space and Hilton to elevate the guest experience in space". Attractions Magazine. Archived from the original on March 20, 2023. Retrieved March 20, 2023.
  14. Burke, John Frederick (1969). Moon zero two : from the story for the film. Gavin- Lyall, Martin Davison, Frank Hardman. London: Pan Books. p. 23. ISBN   0-330-02370-5. OCLC   877604595.