California-based start-up Galactic Resource Utilization Space, founded by 21-year-old UC Berkeley graduate Skyler Chan, has launched a booking website accepting $1 million deposits for stays at what they claim will be the first permanent hotel on the Moon by 2032, built using lunar soil transformed into durable structures through a proprietary process, with total costs expected to exceed $10 million per person.
by Nij Martin
The phrase “sky’s the limit” just became obsolete. For wealthy adventure seekers with seven-figure bank accounts, the ultimate vacation destination is now accepting reservations—238,900 miles away on the Moon.
Galactic Resource Utilization Space (GRU), a California-based start-up founded by 21-year-old UC Berkeley graduate Skyler Chan, launched their booking website Monday, unveiling plans for what they claim will be “the first-ever permanent off-Earth structure”—a hotel on the Moon opening in 2032. The catch? Aspiring lunar tourists must put down deposits ranging from $250,000 to $1 million, with final costs expected to exceed $10 million per person.
“We live during an inflection point where we can actually become interplanetary before we die,” Chan said in a statement. “If we succeed, billions of human lives will be born on the moon and Mars and be able to experience the beauty of lunar and martian life.”
The project is built on In-Situ Resource Utilization—transforming lunar regolith, the Moon’s dusty top layer, into durable building materials. The company said they would use “a proprietary habitation modules system and automated process for transforming lunar soil into durable structures” to meet their deadline.
GRU’s three-phase plan starts in 2029 with a 22-pound test payload landing on the Moon to demonstrate fabricating “moon bricks” using proprietary geopolymers. By 2031, a larger inflatable habitat will deploy into a “lunar pit”—a deep hole providing natural shielding from radiation and extreme temperature swings. Then in 2032, the first hotel opens: an Earth-manufactured inflatable module accommodating up to four guests at a time, with 12 guest intakes expected per year.
“It won’t be your traditional hotel. That is why people are getting excited,” Chan told Metro. “Think about all these experiences you can have in the Moon Hotel. Moon walking. Looking out the window and seeing the Earth and the stars.” Chan has even suggested guests might play golf on the lunar surface, echoing NASA astronaut Alan Shephard’s iconic 1971 Apollo 14 moment.
The hotel rooms will feature oxygen generation, water recycling, temperature control, an emergency escape system, and radiation shelter for solar storms. While the first iteration will be inflatable, future versions are envisioned as rigid structures modeled after the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco.
The target market? Participants of previous commercial space flights and wealthy, adventurous newlyweds seeking the ultimate honeymoon. Given that only 12 people have ever walked on the Moon—the last being Gene Cernan during NASA’s Apollo 17 mission in 1972—the exclusivity factor alone justifies the astronomical price tag.
Chan has secured funding from investors behind SpaceX and Anduril, a company developing autonomous defense systems. This backing lends credibility to what might otherwise seem like fantasy. The project aligns with U.S. ambitions for lunar expansion spearheaded by NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman with support from President Donald Trump.
The company believes tourism provides “the fastest path for humanity to become interplanetary.” Their white paper outlines expansion from the high-end hotel into a wider settlement. As GRU’s founding philosophy states: “Humanity’s transition to an interplanetary species is not a question of if, but when.”
Chan added: “I’ve been obsessed with space since I was a kid. I’ve always wanted to become an astronaut and feel extremely fortunate to be doing my life’s work.”
The project faces astronomical hurdles. Success depends on heavy-lift vehicles like SpaceX’s Starship, which have yet to perform regular crewed lunar landings. There are virtually no international laws regarding property rights and permanent structures on the Moon. Construction must begin in 2029, pending regulatory approval.
“It is a big bet,” Chan acknowledged. “We’re not going to sugarcoat it. But if we’re successful, this is literally going to be the most impactful thing that has happened in human history.” The company’s white paper declares: “The next trillion-dollar company isn’t building an AI agent—it’s building the first cities on the Moon and Mars, enabling billions of human lives to be born.”
Applications are open now with a $1,000 non-refundable application fee. For those selected, deposits range from $250,000 to $1 million. It’s a steep entry price for what remains a promise on a website.
Yet there’s something compelling about the audacity. Whether GRU Space delivers on its 2032 timeline or becomes another ambitious project that never materializes, it represents a shift in how we think about space—not as a destination for government astronauts alone, but as a tourism frontier for anyone wealthy enough to afford the ticket.
The Moon hotel may or may not open in 2032, but one thing is certain: for millionaires seeking the ultimate bragging rights, the question isn’t whether they can afford it—it’s whether they’re willing to bet a million dollars that a 21-year-old entrepreneur can actually pull it off.