Playboy and Virgin Galactic envision strip club in space

Washington: The popular adult-magazine company, Playboy, has teamed up with the space tourism company Virgin Galactic in fantasizing a Playboy Club in space — a sprawling sci-fi inspired depiction of fun and games on a huge private space station.

A zero-gravity dance club, a casino featuring “human roulette” and a restaurant for fine dining are just some of the amenities envisioned by artist Thomas Tenery and released by Playboy on Tuesday. The magazine worked with several futurists and scientists, including Virgin Galactic head designer Adam Wells, to illustrate the potential space Playboy Club. “As Virgin Galactic gets closer to becoming the world``s first commercial space line, Playboy is eagerly pondering the creation of the ultimate intergalactic entertainment destination,” Playboy editorial director Jimmy Jellinek said in a statement. “This heaven-in-the-heavens will exceed starry-eyed travelers`` wildest dreams, and guests will truly experience a party that``s out of this world.” Founded by British billionaire Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Galactic is a private space company seeking to become the world``s first passenger spaceliner service. Playboy’s clubs were launched by magazine founder Hugh Hefner in the 1960s. But every Playboy Club has the same limitation: It``s stuck on Earth. The dance club is the one room on board with no windows. It is a totally encompassing zero-gravity psychedelic experience. “The Playboy Club in space will be on a station in orbit, like a cruise ship,” Playboy writers A.J. Baime and Jason Harper explained in a description. “Orbiting Earth is one idea, but it could also travel around other celestial bodies.” Tenery’s paintings suggest the club could be built on a vast wheel-shaped space station that would spin to create a sort of artificial gravity. Unmanned cargo ships could be shot up to the space station to keep the club stocked with supplies. “You could literally swing around the dark side of the moon,” Wells told Playboy. A big selling point would be the restaurant, which would be built into the spinning section so diners (and their food) wouldn``t float off their seats and tables, explained Baime and Harper, who also sought input from futurist Thomas Frey of the Davini Institute think tank, and former NASA scientist Stan Kent. We imagine the restaurant has gravity, to prevent chaos. “A big turnoff for most people in space is cold interiors,” said Frey. “They don’t find the Star Wars look inviting.” These interiors are warm and elegant. A plethora of windows would also give diners the atmosphere – pun intended – of flying in space. In Tenery’s depictions, the space game room would include a roulette system in which you are the ball, as well as zero-gravity bungee jumping and the obligatory space bar. There would be no windows in the zero-gravity dance club, but there would be drinks, served by Playboy bunnies wearing jetpacks. And there would be exterior windows in the private “orbital pleasure dome,” so clubgoers could gaze down at Earth during romantic interludes including, you guessed it, sex in space, the writers said. “The entire Kama Sutra will have to be reimagined according to the rules of zero-gravity physics,” Baime and Harper added. ANI