A company named GRU Space has publicly shared its intention to build a series of increasingly advanced habitats on the Moon, the pinnacle of which will be a hotel modeled after the Palace of the Fine Arts in San Francisco.
On Monday, the company opened its offerings to the public, inviting prospective lunar travelers to secure their spot with a deposit ranging from $250,000 to $1 million. This deposit would qualify them for participation in one of the company's initial missions to the lunar surface, potentially set to launch in as little as six years.
The scale of the endeavor raises eyebrows, considering GRU Space's nascent stage. When I last spoke with the founder, Skyler Chan, in late December, the company comprised only one full-time employee besides Chan himself, who recently graduated from the University of California, Berkeley.
Despite these modest beginnings, I find these narratives fascinating: Chan's sincerity and ambition are contagious. While the commercial discussion often leans towards lunar resource extraction, I believe that lunar tourism holds immense long-term potential as an unforgettable destination.
Thus, when I interviewed Chan, it was with an open mind.
Who are the customers?
Much like many in his generation, Chan harbored dreams of becoming an astronaut during his youth. However, during his high school and college years, he realized that his ambition could have greater impact by enabling broader access to space exploration for everyone.
“I realized I was born in this time where we can actually become interplanetary, and that is probably the singular most impactful thing one person could do with their time,” Chan shared. “So I charged towards building the systems necessary and technology to enable that future. That’s actually what led me to go to Berkeley to study electrical engineering and computer science.”