Welcome to the Intergalactic Space Hotel, an imaginary home away from home in the heavens at the end of the 20th century.

Meet safety engineer Laurali Kinsella, 19. She'll be working to ensure you have enough oxygen to breathe and that your living quarters are safe from radiation and flying space junk.

You can also thank marketing chief Erin Cook, 21, your marketing coordinator, and hotel manager Tobias Devor, 18, who will make sure your trip is as extraordinary as you had hoped.

What's that? What space hotel, you ask?

Very well, there's no such thing, at least yet.

But when a heavenly Hilton does become a reality, Laurali, Erin, Tobias and 18 other undergraduates at Rochester Institute of Technology will be ready to take their places in history.

The group is enrolled in what is very likely the world's first college course on space tourism -- a distinction that has already given them a taste of the fame that actual space tourism pioneers will get someday.

At the beginning of their second class session, the group of 21 would-be pioneers saw themselves featured on the local news.

But when the laughs were over, the class pushed on to more important topics: orbital physics, the politics of NASA and the psychological issues that come with shooting humans into space.

The multidisciplinary course is headed up by Dr. Clint Wallington and Dr. Francis Domoy, both professors at the university's food, hotel and travel program.

What's that? What space hotel, you ask?

The group is enrolled in what is very likely the world's first collegecourse on space tourism -- a distinction that has already given them a taste ofthe fame that actual space tourism pioneers will get someday.

Today, by some estimates, a trip into space, let alone a stay in a space hotel, would cost upwards of $10 million, and the prospects for reducing thatcost remain slim.

And while the course is taught out of the hotel management department -- the space tourism classroom is a stroll away from the training kitchen for food management majors -- the students will hear from an impressive group of scientists, engineers, economists and even a military officer during the semester.

That kind of broad background would be useful when convincing people to risk their lives.

While a quick poll of the students in the class said they wouldn't pass up a chance to go into space -- even if they knew their life was at risk -- there was general agreement that the public at large would be more skeptical of giving it all up -- family, fortune and dreams -- for a chance to visit or live in outer space.

"People won't go up if they think they're gonna die," said Laurali, the would-be safety engineer.

Professor Domoy takes it a step further than worrying about death.

Guests, he said, would probably feel uncomfortable if couldn't track their earthly possessions and favorite sports teams.

That means internet connections, newspapers and telephones, and other creature comforts that currently are considered luxuries in the realm of space.

"I think we're going to need USA Today," he said. "I still think we'll want to check on our earthly possessions."

Hojo in space -- from Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film, 2001: A Space Odyssey (MGM)

And especially since the price tag of space tourism will be sky-high at first, the service will have to appeal to the kind of people who expect luxury in their daily routine.

That means that the marketers who sell space trips and the engineers who design the hotels will have to be sure to sell both safety and comfort to prospective clients.

But if anything blocks the feasibility of space tourism, it won't be cramped sleeping quarters or a slow connection to the internet.

The current roadblock is the lack of a cheap, reliable, and safe method of sending humans into space. Today, it costs $10,000 to place a pound of payload into low Earth orbit on the space shuttle, the most reliable vehicle available to carry humans into space.

Today, by some estimates, a trip into space, let alone a stay in a space hotel, would cost upwards of $10 million, and the prospects for reducing that cost remain slim.

And while several companies are trying to develop cheap launch vehicles, most are having trouble finding investors willing to risk millions on un-proven technology.

The Rotary Rocket company's development of the Roton rocket, which has gone through some basic tests, is virtually at a standstill until they can come up with more money.

"Rocket science is rocket science, but rocket finance is by far the hardest part of the equation," said Rotary Rocket's spokesman, Geoffrey Hughes.

That doesn't bode well for would-be tourists in space.

"It seems to me that space tourism is a business model that has got the wrong number of zeros in it," said John Pike, director of space policy at the Federation of American Scientists. "It's so far in the future that it would be premature to plan for such things in any meaningful sense," he said.

And when does Pike think space tourism might become feasible?

"After I'm dead," he said.

But this skepticism does not deter the class's instructors.

Dr. Domoy remains convinced that before the end of the next decade, people will be taking mini-vacations in Earth orbit. And his treatment of seemingly minute details -- newspaper delivery, inflatable materials, retail shops -- shows just how serious he takes the subject.

But whether one considers Dr. Domoy a visionary or a wishful thinker, his class is getting an education they won't soon forget.

The access to space experts, the media attention and the subject matter itself makes the course an exciting way to spend a semester's worth of class time.

Said Janice Wisely, 19, who would like to be an systems engineer aboard a space hotel: "This could give me an option of getting into space."

A bag of lettuce offers a chance to win a trip to outer space (or $50,000 if that can't happen).