According to the wishes of a US company, the moon is to become a destination for tourists. You can already make a reservation for a hotel that doesn’t even exist yet.
Feb 1, 2026, 8:32 p.mFeb 1, 2026, 8:32 p.m
Dorothea Meadows / t-online
How about a vacation on the moon?
It sounds like a joke, but it’s a real venture by a US start-up called Gru Space (named after the supervillain Mister Gru from the “Despicable Me” film series). The US company says it plans to install an inflatable facility on the Earth’s satellite by 2032. It should offer space for four visitors.
Not a beach vacation: If you want to spend time on the moon, you would stay in this Gru Space hotel.image: Gru Space
«The site will offer breathtaking views of the lunar surface and unparalleled views of Earth. “Also exciting outboard activities,” writes Gru Space in a press release.
Are there visionaries at work here who will achieve great things? Or is this all a huge hoax? What is striking is that neither financing nor a building permit is available for the ambitious project, but reservations can already be made now. The reservation fees are in the low range (around 800 euros), while deposits for rooms were sometimes quoted in the millions. The first interested parties are said to have registered.
At least the company from California is detailing the steps in which equipment will be tested starting in 2029 and then equipment will be brought to the moon. The inflatable building will be installed in the protected area of a moon pit (e.g. an asteroid crater). This would provide protection from solar flares and a “more stable thermal environment, as the temperature on the Moon normally varies between minus 170 and plus 100 degrees Celsius.”
People have mixed reactions to the company’s social media posts: “Feels like fraud,” writes one. Another: “Everything about this idea is simply brilliant, right down to the naming. I mean, Gru. That’s fucking awesome.”
At Gru Space we firmly believe that humanity must become interplanetary as quickly as possible and travel through space, they say. The company is committed to this goal. “If we fail, we lose a decade; if we succeed, we can permanently change the development of our species,” write the three creators, who can point to scientific careers.
“Mars One” failed completely
It is a dream of many to settle people temporarily or even permanently outside the earth. The Dutch company “Mars One” wanted to land and settle people on Mars from 2023. According to Dutch entrepreneur Bas Lansdorp in 2016, the project was supposed to be marketed and financed as “the largest media event in world history” as part of a reality TV show – but it failed completely.