Asgardia, A New Nation Orbiting in Space Is Looking For Applicants
Even if we want to admit it or not, the future is unravelling right before our eyes. And with news about a future space station/nation, there’s no denying it. Asgardia, named as such after the Norse mythological home of the gods, will launch its first satellite sometime in 2017 and eventually have a fully functioning space station which will be home to some of the 150 million nationals who will be living there.
Asgardia will aim to be fully devoted to democracy, freedom and the development of space technologies. Igor Ashurbeyli, Asgardia project team leader and founder, is now gathering applications on its website in order to fulfil the requirements needed for it’s UN approval. In order for this to happen, however, they will first need a few hundred thousand applicants. But even if this dream will one day become a reality, not all its applicants will live in Asgardia.
Igor Ashurbeyli was a scientist himself but has since founded a company, Socium Holding, which has more than 10,000 employees over 30 companies worldwide. These companies are involved in the fields of science, technology and social affairs.
“If you look at a nation’s population, statistically, 2 percent of the population are creative and productive and progressive, so we hope that looking at the population of Earth, 7.5 billion, we are hoping that 150 million would be those creative progressive people [who become Asgardians],” Ashurbeyli told Space.com.
Ashurbeyli described his vision as being: “… a mirror reflection of Earth in space, but without the borders, boundaries, religious constraints and without the state lines; a digital mirror reflection without all those drawbacks. We prefer dialogue with people and companies, not states…[Asgardia] facilitates and inside that envelope they can create.”
According to Ram Jakhu, the director of McGill University’s Institute of Air and Space Law in Montreal, and legal expert to Asgardia said that once it has the citizens, the government, and a space station to call territory, then it will fulfil three of the four requirements needed for a nation state. The last on is recognition by the other UN members.
Ram Jakhu said in an interview: “The [Asgardia] vision is very, very clear: This nation will do things to help protect the Earth and, secondly, it will be for exclusively peaceful purposes and also allowing access to developing countries that don’t have that [space access]. So, if that is done, recognition will not be a major problem. If these four elements [territory, people, government and recognition] are achieved it become a state and can apply for its membership of the United Nations.”
Now, even thought the first satellite will be launched from an already space-faring nation, Asgardia is aimed to be launched from an emerging country like Kenya or Ethiopia. This will avoid some complications when it comes to a various legal situation which might emerge when it comes to exploiting space resources.
In any case, Asgardia would focus its attention on how to deal with various threats that could endanger life on Earth. Things like potential meteor impacts or coronal mass ejections coming from the sun.