Design and Construction of Zero-Gravity Gymnasium

Abstract

In recent years the possibility of developing a space tourism industry has received growing attention since it has the potential to generate a commercial launch market of tens of launches per day—enough to justify investment in developing reusable launch vehicles capable of airline operations. The provision of accommodation in orbit will be an important part of this activity, since it will enable guests to enjoy a wider variety of entertainments in Earth's orbit, and so will help expand the market. Once orbiting hotels are put into operation, competition will drive them to become more sophisticated, and progressively more advanced facilities will be developed. One direction of such development will be to include increasingly larger rooms for guests to exercise and participate in sports in weightlessness, or “zero gravity” as it is popularly known. This paper considers the case of a small gymnasium that might be the first sports facility to be used as part of an orbital hotel. The engineering design is considered, together with its assembly, costs, and commercial potential. Overall, once launch costs fall sufficiently for space tourism to become commercially feasible, such sports facilities appear likely to become attractive commercial investments.