Five Essentials To Pack For A Week At The Space Hotel

In other space news this week, a Russian company is opening the world's first space hotel, located 217 miles above ground. Which will certainly make for great travel photography—but maybe not so great for, you know, 'exploring the neighborhood.'

CNN reports on the float-el, which is scheduled to open in 2016 under the name Commercial Space Station. Gee, how romantic. If you're game—and the £100,000 hasn't spooked you yet (not to mention the £500,000 cost just to get there)—here are some tips on what you'll need to bring with you.

Deodorant

The space station does come with a "shower pod," but water—and gravity in general—just don't behave the same as on earth, and washing all your bits and pieces could prove somewhat challenging. Not to mention the fact that you'll be in awfully close quarters with everyone else aboard. And stinky roommates make for a not-so-nice vacation.

A Gripmaster

You'll be spending most of your time on the internet, so we suggest some gentle hand exercises. For heavy internet users, this is almost compulsory (lord knows it sure helps us!), and does a great job of strengthening some of your most-used muscles. Besides, cardio is totally out of the question anyway—we don't see a "fitness center" anywhere in the images.

A flask

The Commercial Space Station strictly bans alcohol. But hey, so does the MTA, and when was the last time that stopped anyone from paper-bagging it at 2am on a Friday night? So, yes, be discreet, and no, don't expect anything fancy—but when you're spending half the day staring at a slowly-spinning planet, you might find yourself in need of a pick-me-up.

Your native flag

Sergey Kostenko, CEO of Orbital Technologies (the Russian firm that's manning this whole operation), told CNN that it may be possible for guests to take day trips out to the far side of the moon. Awesome! So, just in case, bring along your national colors. When you find yourself bouncing amongst the milky craters, you'll want to leave your mark.

Twister

From Standard LA to Gild Hall in New York, plenty of hotels are getting on board with old-fashioned entertainment. So when you return from your jaunt to the moon, and you've digested your freeze-dried foods, and you're a little buzzed from that DIY cocktail you slapped together in the bathroom, you might have a little excess energy to burn off. It'll be a tight squeeze, but what were you expecting, a Presidential Suite?

(Source: hotelchatter.com, August, 2011)