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Jeremy Hansen, the astronaut from the recent Artemis II Mission—who made history as the first Canadian to go on a mission around the moon—is now lending his hand to a lunar-themed project back on Earth.
Hansen has been hired as the “Astronaut + Space Strategist” for MOON, a vast tourism, entertainment, and residential “smart city” resort complex centered around the “Sphere,” a giant replica of the moon that stands 1,023 feet high and spans 888 feet wide in diameter.
Built by Moon World Resorts, “MOON will transport millions of guests annually on an experiential life-altering journey, previously thought possible for only a few,” the company’s website says. The Canadian company expects to welcome around 10 million guests a year, including around 2.5 million “lunar excursions.”
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Michael R. Henderson, the co-founder and CEO of Moon World Resorts, told Newsweek that “MOON is not a theme park; rather it will be an accurate and realistic adaptation of Earth’s Moon,” noting that the lunar surface, lunar base, and astronaut-training experiences will be “extremely close” to the conditions and experience of an actual lunar mission.
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Hansen will be the project’s “guardian of authenticity,” and “when you walk on MOON’s lunar surface and explore its lunar base, everything you will see will have been influenced by Jeremy,” Henderson said.
The company aims to build cities like MOON in different regions around the world, from North and South America to various parts of Asia and Europe, as well as Africa and the Oceania region, with its masterplan layout being adaptive to coastal, desert, and inland landscapes.
“This project is as ambitious as a space program; it’s going to be extraordinary,” Hansen told El País in Spain, which is reportedly among the leading candidates to be one of the 10 potential locations for MOON.
According to the company’s website, the project has been backed by over 50 international partners across 12 countries and has been in development for over two decades since the idea was first launched back in 2000. The partners range from various architects, engineers, and designers to consultants in different disciplines.
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The company has reportedly raised “millions” of dollars, Sandra Matthews, the co-founder and president of Moon World Resorts, told El País, without specifying the exact amount. The company is looking to secure additional funding over the coming eight months to complete the project's design phase, the president told the newspaper.
“At this point, only visionaries are interested, because you really have to be one to imagine something on this scale," Hansen told El País. "But in a world that needs more housing and more construction, this is a new way of building communities. And it’s possible there could be 10 of them around the world.”
Plans for the MOON resort come as cities and communities continue to battle the ongoing housing crisis.
Around 3.4 billion people across the globe are reported to lack access to secure, safe, and adequate housing, according to a 2026 report by the United Nations.
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See the Sky as ‘If You Were Actually on the Moon’
Costing around $5 billion to construct, the MOON complex is hoping to serve as “the blueprint for a smart city,” Matthews told El País.
Henderson told Newsweek that the development will feature two hotels, centers for events and conventions, a wellbeing and longevity center, a university campus, a planetarium, and an observatory, as well as restaurants, lounges, meeting rooms, a business center, a lagoon, a park, and “a boutique high street.” There will also be 12,000 luxury residences.
“You’ll be able to own a condo overlooking the moon,” Matthews told El País, adding that the price of hotel stays would be similar to that of any five-star venue, while a 90-minute walk across the moon replica would cost $500.
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The focus areas for Hansen’s role will include the lunar surface and lunar base experiences, astronaut training facilities, space and aerospace commerce partnerships, space tourism commerce partnerships, university affiliations, technology commerce partnerships, as well as “guest experience across every space-related touchpoint within MOON,” the company said in a statement.
Hansen told El País that the mega “smart city” development will give people the chance to “live, work, and play against the up-close visualization of the moon,” adding, “We’re talking about an area the size of 10 football fields, and on that surface you’ll see the sky exactly as you would if you were actually on the moon.”
The project aims to feature “a replica as close as possible to a real moon base,” serving both as a tourist attraction and a testing site for “future technologies,” the astronaut said.
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Asked about what architectural/engineering challenges and financial hurdles the company has to overcome for the visionary project to move forward, Henderson told Newsweek: “There are no architectural or engineering challenges of concern, just lots of focused workload. We have the entire team on board to deliver everything. MOON will be licenced on a regional basis to major corporations who already have all of the required finance in place.”
Henderson said the company has no preference on where the first MOON is developed, noting that “the first location will be where the first appointed Regional Licensee wants it to be.”
The company is aiming to complete its pre-development program by next year, as well as “appoint the first Regional Licensee” and break ground in 2028, before its official opening in 2032/2033, Henderson added.
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Contact Newsweek editors for this story: Ben Kelly and Anthony Murray.
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