Aluminum for spacecraft interiors is out of fashion; What space tourists want is wood. That is the bet of Vastthe creators of Haven-1, the world’s first commercial space station that the SpaceX Falcon rocket will place into low Earth orbit next year. The first paying customers will come aboard in 2026 and, judging by the newly released final designs of the station’s cozy interior, they will feel right at home.
To help add softness to an interior that previously focused more on function than style, Vast has used fine-grain maple wood, a contemporary favorite of interior designers, chosen for its ability to add warmth and elegance to any space, and now to space.
Naturally, the maple slats are there for aesthetic appeal more than anything else, but Haven-1 has also developed other amenities, including a puffy space comforter that should help encourage a good night’s rest, which isn’t easy. to achieve in space.
“This isn’t just any quilt,” says Hillary Coe, Vast’s director of design and marketing. “It’s a duvet that inflates, creating that equal pressure against you that allows for a beautiful, comfortable night’s rest.”
According to Vast, the patent-pending sleeping system is about the size of a queen-size bed and should accommodate both side and back sleepers.
“Bob-cut astronauts laugh when they come to our office and see the sleep system; they would have loved to have one (on their daily missions),” says Coe, who spent five years as a design director at SpaceX before jumping. from the spaceship to Vast. He also held design positions at Starlink, Google and Apple.
eyes on the stars
Vast is a Southern California startup founded by crypto billionaire Jed McCaleb, a programmer who, in 2010, transformed his Mt. Gox card exchange site into the first major Bitcoin exchange. It is worth 2.9 billion dollars according to Forbes Billionaires List. McCaleb founded Vast in 2021 to develop artificial gravity space stations.
Early hires included Kyle Dedmon, former SpaceX vice president of construction; systems engineer Tom Hayford, who has worked for Relativity Space and SpaceX; Molly McCormick, former SpaceX human factors engineer; and Colin Smith, former SpaceX propulsion engineer.
“Earth has finite resources, but there is enormous untapped wealth in the solar system, both in terms of energy and matter, that could sustain many ‘Earths,'” McCaleb said. Space news in 2022.
“In the same way,” he added, “humanity needs a border. Every prosperous civilization has had one to push towards; We haven’t had any for some time. Without borders, the world becomes a zero-sum game, which is detrimental to the psyche of a civilization.”
Like another space-obsessed billionaire, McCaleb has his eyes set on the stars.
“In terms of humanity’s long-term future, we will eventually need to live off Earth,” he says.
Placed into low-Earth orbit by SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, Haven-1 will be more of a high-class capsule hotel than an ISS-style space station, but it’s still a serious research platform designed to deliver long-term missions in comfort, not just a microgravity Hilton with free wifi and a stellar view.
