Thinking On Paper

Skyler Chan: building a hotel on the moon, one brick at a time


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Skyler Chan is the 22-year-old founder and CEO of Gru. He's also, possibly, the most ambitious person in the space industry right now. And he's building a hotel on the moon. If all goes to plan, the first paying customers could be there as soon as 2032.

This episode covers:

  • Gru's answer to pressure and temperature: an inflatable structure that ships flat from Earth, deploys on the lunar surface, and holds a human being alive
  • Gru's answer to radiation: a brick, made on the moon, from the moon, using a geopolymer process mixed with lunar regolith
  • Nobody has ever made anything on the moon. Mission one, targeting 2029, makes the first brick and inflates the first bladder
  • Why the cost per kilogram to the moon is $1 million today, why SpaceX says $100,000, and why Gru is betting on neither figure lasting
  • This is not a technology problem. It is an operational problem. We went to the moon in 1969 with less computing power than the phone in your pocket
  • The hate mail, the haters, and why Skyler thinks none of it matters


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Chapters


(00:00) Trailer

(02:19) Building a Hotel on the Moon

(06:06) The Logistics of Space Travel

(06:47) Economic Considerations for Lunar Ventures

(10:03) Merging Technologies for Lunar Habitats

(10:59) First Mission: Building the First Brick on the Moon

(13:15) Changing Perceptions of Space Projects

(16:25) The Human Spirit and Interplanetary Exploration

(19:40) Responsibility of Being an Interplanetary Species



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Thinking On PaperBy Mark Fielding and Jeremy Gilbertson