Las Vegas is world-famous for over-the-top entertainment offerings that verge on the fantastical, but a newly proposed development on The Strip is quite literally out of this world. The Canada-based company Moon World Resorts is proposing a $5 billion five-star hotel and casino whose marquee attraction is an “active lunar colony” that will “precisely mimic” lunar colonies under serious active planning by NASA and others.
Because postmodernism reigns supreme in Las Vegas, Moon World Resorts aims to build a mammoth 735-foot-tall moon-like sphere that, if completed, would become the city’s second-tallest building behind the Strat observation tower. Though 75,000 times smaller than the actual moon, the property is cramming a multitude of amenities inside. Current plans indicate 4,000 hotel rooms, a casino, planetarium, 2,500-seat theater, 10,000-seat arena, spaceship-themed nightclub, and a “crater cafe” across its 5.5 million square feet. “People want something unique, something different, something ‘wow.’ Space flights cost $200,000 to $250,000—so the masses just can’t participate,” Michael Henderson, co-founder of Moon World Resorts, told the New York Post. “With Moon, for $500 they can walk on an authentic lunar surface and enjoy exploring a lunar colony in a spectacular way.”
At the “active lunar colony,” which occupies the sphere’s uppermost portions, guests can pay a cool $500 to spend 90 minutes exploring artificial lunar terrain in a “moon buggy.” Accessing the colony is its own adventure—guests will ride a “moon shuttle” reminiscent of a rollercoaster that circles the exterior of the hotel suites as they ascend. Developers, investors, and the state government are currently competing for licenses for the property, which also plans to open outposts in the Middle East, China, and Spain by 2027.
