A Startup Is Taking Reservations for a Hotel on the Moon

Galactic Resource Utilisation Space plans to open humanity’s first lunar hotel within the next decade

Landlord Ledger Publications • News • 2026-01-19

A California startup is turning lunar dreams into reservations. Galactic Resource Utilisation Space (GRU), founded by 22-year-old Skyler Chan, is now accepting deposits of $250,000 or $1 million to secure future stays at what it calls humanity’s first Moon hotel, targeted for opening in 2032. The announcement has ignited excitement about the next frontier of space tourism: not just fleeting orbital hops, but surface vacations on another world.

GRU Space Launch Video --

Skyler, a Canadian-born UC Berkeley electrical engineering and computer science graduate who finished a year early, brings youthful energy and relevant experience to the challenge. He worked on vehicle software at Tesla and contributed to a NASA-funded 3D printer sent to orbit. Inspired by astronaut Chris Hadfield, he sees GRU as a step toward making humanity multi-planetary. The small team includes Dr. Kevin Cannon, a leading lunar regolith expert who left his Colorado School of Mines professorship to lead in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) development, and advisor Dr. Robert Lillis from UC Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory. Backed by Y Combinator and Nvidia’s Inception program—and drawing investors linked to SpaceX and Anduril—GRU has early credibility in a field where bold bets often pay off.

The hotel concept is elegantly practical. Rather than shipping massive structures from Earth, GRU will use the Moon’s own resources. Lunar regolith—fine, glass-sharp soil—will be processed with geopolymer binders into strong “Moon bricks” for construction. The first phase, planned for 2029, sends a small 10-kg payload on a commercial lander to test inflatable habitats and brick production. By 2032, guests would stay in an expanded inflatable module sheltered inside a lunar pit or lava tube—natural features that provide built-in shielding from radiation, micrometeorites, and extreme temperature swings (from 250°F in sunlight to -208°F in shadow). Robotics would automate excavation, assembly, and setup, while advanced life-support systems maintain a comfortable, pressurized environment.

This vision arrives as space tourism matures rapidly. Suborbital flights from Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin already deliver zero-gravity experiences for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Orbital missions via Axiom Space reach the International Space Station for tens of millions, attracting pioneers like Dennis Tito, who paid $20 million for an ISS visit in 2001 and later booked a SpaceX lunar flyby. GRU takes the next logical step: five-night lunar stays, priced ultimately above $10 million, offering low-gravity exploration, Earthrise views from observation domes, and the profound quiet of an alien landscape. Deposits are refundable after an initial period, following a $1,000 application fee, targeting high-net-worth adventurers, AI-era billionaires, and couples seeking extraordinary honeymoons. By tapping private capital, GRU aims for “revenue sovereignty,” funding progress through demand rather than government grants alone.

The broader ecosystem supports this trajectory. SpaceX’s Starship—reusable, massive-payload-capable—serves as the planned transport backbone; Chan calls it the “FedEx” for lunar delivery. NASA’s Artemis program targets crewed Moon landings by 2027–2028 and a surface nuclear reactor by 2030, creating infrastructure that commercial ventures can build upon. Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lander adds options. Historical concepts like the Lunar Hilton (promoted by Barron Hilton in the 1960s) and Bigelow Aerospace’s inflatable habitats (successfully tested on the ISS) show that expandable, resource-efficient designs have real promise. GRU combines these threads with ISRU innovation and a tourism-first strategy.

Dr. Cannon’s expertise—backed by NASA grants and peer-reviewed work on regolith concretes—grounds the technical approach in solid science. Lunar pits cleverly leverage geology to reduce radiation exposure (200 times Earth’s surface levels) and protect against moonquakes and abrasive dust. The deposit model validates interest while providing early capital, and merchandise like $1,400 simulated Moon bricks engages the public in a way that echoes successful New Space branding.

Challenges remain, as they do for any frontier project: Starship’s maturation, securing large funding rounds, regulatory navigation under the Outer Space Treaty and FAA oversight, and building a proven market for lunar travel. Yet these are solvable hurdles in an industry where delays have repeatedly given way to breakthroughs. GRU’s agile, private-sector focus positions it to iterate quickly and capitalize on converging capabilities.

The Moon, 240,000 miles away, with its one-sixth gravity and abundant resources, is no longer just a scientific target—it’s becoming a destination. GRU’s lunar hotel represents calculated ambition: a place where tourism can seed economies, inspire new generations, and accelerate humanity’s expansion outward. As reservations begin and test missions approach, the vision of lunar sunsets and Earthlit nights feels less like science fiction and more like the next chapter waiting to be written.