Principal Investigator Olivier de Weck
The MIT project -- the Managed, Reconfigurable, In-space Nodal Assembly (MARINA) -- was designed as a commercially owned and operated space station, featuring a luxury hotel as the primary anchor tenant and NASA as a temporary co-anchor tenant for 10 years. NASA’s estimated recurring costs, $360 million per year, represent an order of magnitude reduction from the current costs of maintaining and operating the International Space Station. Potential savings are approximately 16 percent of NASA’s overall budget -- or around $3 billion per year.