International Space Station hotel "could one day be a possibility"

PanARMENIAN.Net - Staying in a hotel on the International Space Station could one day be a possibility, as it was one of the ideas floated at a US Congress meeting to map out the future direction of NASA, Digital Spy reveals.

The concept was pitched by astronaut Eileen Collins, who suggested that the money generated through space tourism could be used to fund missions into the further reaches of space - manned missions to Mars, for instance.

"There are plenty of tourists and people that have money that would love to go up in space and live on the station," Gizmodo quotes her as saying.

"If we could find a private company that would take over the station and sell it like a hotel, we may be able wean ourselves off of the space station and get into deep space."

Mars exploration was a hot topic at the meeting, with former NASA administrator Mike Griffin pitching the idea of astronauts spending several months on the Space Station, followed by a six-month stay on the moon as preparation for a trip to the Red Planet.