According to Norse mythology, the Fortress Asgard is the heavenly city where the gods live. Now also, according to an expert committee meeting yesterday in Paris, is the name under which a new group of people of all countries lives together in orbit to protect the earth from the dangers that assail and work towards it be known of knowledge. A new nation based in outer space. And no, we’re talking about science fiction.
This was stated by the (for the moment, half hidden) group led by Russian scientist Igor Ashurbeyli, founder of the International Center for Space Research in Vienna. In an open letter offered to journalists, Ashurbeyli explained how various personalities of science of Canada, Romania, Russia and the United States were allied to carry out one of the most grandiose plans of history.
The objective? If we want to model an optimal environment for space research, it is better that we build now in a model that allows full cooperation between all countries of the earth, under one banner.
Why space should be united?
And speaking of flags: the symbol, logo and even the national anthem will be decided democratically by all those first citizens of Asgardia. That is, the first 100,000 people who register from the Internet to become future citizens of this new state. You can do it right here, just fill out this simple form (and note that there are only 40,000 seats).
A large number of such applicants has a second purpose: that’s the number of people who need to take the draft State to the United Nations. If this body recognize them (which, at this time, does not seem to have many options to earn itself), applicants would be gained dual nationality, that of their country of origin and the Asgardian.
End the influence of geopolitics: an impossible idea (as land laws)
One of the first challenges that would face Asgardia is the legal issue. Nobody says if it can be made an independent country in space, and of course the current laws do not correspond to the claims of these entrepreneurs. Today, the international space laws dictate that it is the country that launched the object beyond the earth, which is responsible.
This used to award the prestigious recognition by the scientific discoveries, also applies to allocate the financial commitments of the damage caused by these objects to reach Earth. A distinct nation that is not a territorial and legal body on earth was created, it could cause problems.
But from this group are not cut: they want to break the deck directly and modify the current legal framework so that it fits your project, not the other way around, looking for a “new era of space exploration. When creating a new private space station, development and innovation of galactic technology in pursuit of human progress will flourish more than in the current context, in which the states impose their particular constraints.”
“A single space legal regime is essential to govern outer space. This would help to ensure that explore sustainable manner and exclusively for peaceful purposes, provided the benefit of humanity, including future generations living on Earth and outer space”, emphasized Ram Jakhu, director of the Institute of Air and Space Law McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
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The unaffordable cost of universal nation
Much care has been taken from the organization not provide the magnitude of the numbers that lead a project. Its immediate goal is to launch a symbolic satellite into space in the next 18 months, which could cost approximately 65 million dollars, but the idea, of course, is not to stop there.
It is one of the reasons why everything points have called a press conference, the act is more about an advertising campaign to gain the interest of investors. As expected in Inverse, it would take tens of millions of dollars to start with the project, and billions just to maintain it.
Also why, to modify the scope of the project as funds finally get it is that your current goals are defined in a vague manner. At the moment the website says they just want to become a “pointer shield for all mankind of natural or human disasters that threaten the earth.”
An example of a mission that could have executed Asgardia is the Chelyabinsk meteorite, which struck with his fall in Russia in 2013 to more than 1,000 people and 4,000 buildings steamrolled. Although the UN or the Space Mission Planning Advisory Group are already working to develop common mechanisms to combat these mishaps, the draft Ashurbeyli specifically focus on these missions. “We want to help create optimal solutions for the future government in space,” Professor Joseph N. Pelton said, former dean of the International Space University in Strasbourg, France.
Original project? And solid?
There are those who accuses the agents of this proposal not be proposing anything too different to the International Space Station (ISS), a center which, incidentally, needed funds from 18 countries and cost 100,000 million dollars in funding. Ram Jakhu, the director of the Institute of Air and Space Law at McGill University (and member of the collective drive Asgardia) denied it in the press conference. “The ISS is a joint project No established as such as ISS. it is only controlled by the different nations that funded installation. It is a kind of cosmic apartment. “
Among the objectives of Asgardia is welcome people of any nation, although this is technologically poor and has not invested in space technology.
Actually, the problem facing the Asgardia project is the same that lives (lived) Mars One. Perhaps you remember, a group of scientists offered to install a human base on the Martian soil to colonize the land, and it asked for volunteers who would like to move to the station as well as financial support to make it viable. Since we met the news in 2012 and financing plans have not gone far enough, and it seems that the idea is slowly fading.
But since Asgardia consider that there is an essential differentiating factor with respect to the idea of Dutch researcher Bas Lansdorp. In your case is not colonize a planet, but something much more ambitious: to create a new nation which under its flag to members of all countries of the Earth, promoting peace and equality in the world while defending from asteroids, space debris and other hazards.
“Also less risky than it will live on Mars. And if life in Asgardia does not convince you can always return to the land,” says Ashurbeyli, scientist (and employer) to command as Lansdorp has face and risks a loss of credibility if its purpose is not going forward.
