The main feature of the team's design is a luxury Earth-facing hotel with eight rooms and a bar, restaurant, and gym.
Called the Managed, Reconfigurable, In-space Nodal Assembly (MARINA), the concept is a hybrid between a hotel and a space station. Rooms would come in the form of inflatable modules attached in a circle around the main spacecraft.
According to the students' plan, the hotel could open to guests by 2025, then get additional modules added over the next 15 years. By 2038, the students say the modules could be repurposed to carry a crew to Mars, where the spaceship could refuel with locally produced methane.
NASA would be a temporary tenant in the MARINA for about 10 years, according to the students' proposal.
The students have even presented an investment plan to the International Astronautical Federation.