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Hilton Backs Space Hotel Built From Shuttle Tanks The hotel group Hilton International is to become the first sponsor of a privately funded plan to build a space station, constructed from used Space Shuttle fuel tanks. By David Whitehouse, BBC News Online Science Editor Start Date: 3/15/99 The hotel group Hilton International is to become the first sponsor of a privately funded plan to build a space station. It will be constructed from used Space Shuttle fuel tanks. And when the Hilton Orbital Hotel is built, space visionary Arthur C. Clark wants to be there for the opening. The project, called Space Islands, will connect together Space Shuttle fuel tanks, each the diameter of a Boeing 747 aircraft. At present they are the only part of NASA's Space Shuttle that is not reused. British Airways are also said to want to become involved in the project. Under consideration is a survey of BA and Hilton customers asking them if they would like to take a holiday in space. They would be asked if they wanted it to be entirely gravity free and if they would like large windows to view the Earth. Would they like to take a spacewalk is another possible question. "There is powerful support for this concept in Washington," said Space Island Group director Gene Meyers. He told BBC News Online "There is no technical reason why it cannot be done." He hopes that the project will excite major companies to sponsor the project in the same way that they sponsor the Olympics. "We need $6 to $12 billion," he said, "That is a fraction of the [$40 billion] cost of the space station that is currently being built by the USA, Russia and other countries." The space station would be made out of empty space shuttle fuel tanks. Currently, the 47m (154 ft) long tanks are used once and allowed to fall back to Earth, burning up in its atmosphere. However they could easily be kept in space and outfitted as living quarters. The most optimistic schedule for its construction is six years, given the money and the will to do it. "Eventually there could be several of these space stations in orbit," says Meyers, "It would even be possible to put one in a figure-eight orbit around the Earth and the Moon. That would be quite a vacation." The idea of using spent Space Shuttle fuel tanks is not new. It was once considered by NASA as the basis for its own space station. However, it was discarded as being too simple. It was possibly also seen as too commercial for an organisation that sees its role mainly in research and development. Up to 100 people at a time could be ferried up to the orbital hotel, if a second-generation space shuttle was built. Space visionary Arthur C. Clarke has been an enthusiastic backer of the project for a year. He was to approach film director Stanley Kubrick to become involved. Together they designed the famous wheel-shaped space station for the film "2001: A Space Odyssey." But Kubrick's recent death has ended the chance for him to see his vision turned into reality. It is no coincidence that in "2001: A Space Odyssey" part of the space station is a Hilton hotel. The hotel group paid to be part of the film. Thirty years later, Arthur C. Clark has once again approached the company to be part of the new initiative. "This space station could be built, there is no reason why it can't" said Gene Meyers. "All we need is for people to find out that it can be done and then help us do it." Excelsior, Michael Lindemann's new novel (written under the pen name Michael Paul), depicts a wholly plausible near future in which human cloning is both widespread and widely abused; terrorists have access to target-specific biological weapons; recreational space travel is commonplace; and mounting pressures of global climate change, environmental decline, population growth and civil unrest inspire radical new approaches to urban security. Built by Frontier on a Macintosh on 6/17/00; 12:02:08 PM. Web Comments - Produced by Larry Lowe Served 3568 times since 3/15/99.

Race to Clone Humans Now Underway in Earnest Dr, Richard Seed, who says he intends to clone his wife, announced at a London conference on March 30, 1999 that he expects the first human clone to be created within two years. New Technique Regrows Man's Lost Thumb Doctors at the University of Massachusetts have succeeded in regrowing the thumb of a man whose original thumb was irreparably crushed in an accident. Cloning Humans to Be Undertaken In Japan Chicago-based physicist Richard Seed says he will participate in a Japan-based project that he hopes will eventually make human cloning possible. Scientists to Grow a Human Heart Scientists from Britain, America, Canada and Switzerland say advances in the past five years have made possible the growth of living human organs in a laboratory, and they are planning to grow the first human heart outside the body. Wind-up Radios Could Be Boon in Developing World Radios that run on a wind-up electric generator are all the rage with Western survivalists but might prove most useful in developing countries. Author Says Cold Fusion is Proven Technology According to author Antony Sutton, several varieties of cold fusion technology are already working in labs around the world. Diabetes-Causing Gene Identified Suppressing the activity of a gene called GAD could prevent the destruction of insulin-producing cells that causes dangerous type I diabetes. Entrepreneur Plans Next-Generation Net for Whole World Neil Tagare, president of New Jersey-based CRT Group, says he'll build a new high-speed fiber optic network that links the whole world and brings underdeveloped countries into the global marketplace. Is an 'Immortality Drug' Coming Soon? New scientific studies said the enzyme telomerase might slow the aging process in cells and might also provide the basis for a broad-spectrum cancer cure. What's Behind the War Against Cold Fusion? Several leading researchers are showing that cold fusion works. But funding is hard to get and official resistance is high. The economic stakes are even higher.