A non-profit organization, Asgardia based out of Vienna, Austria has announced that they are launching the first nation to orbit Earth. Their plan is to create the world’s first “space nation” called Asgardia. They actually want to create a peaceful, space-faring nation that mines asteroids and defends planet Earth from dangerous meteorites, space debris, and other threats.
The group now recruiting roughly 200,000 future citizens to form a recognizable government to become Asgardians. But, currently, they are seeking UN approval.
During a conference in Hong Kong, founders said, “We will soon launch Asgardia-1: the proto-nation’s first satellite.”
Jeffrey Manber, CEO of satellite company NanoRacks said, “The first presence of the Asgardian nation, we can now say, will be in space this year. Asgardia-1 may turn out to be the most important and lasting [idea] that we’re working with. It would be launched aboard a NASA-funded mission.”
This spacecraft will be a nano-satellite about the size of a loaf of bread. And as scientists reported, its weight will be about as much as a newborn baby.
And because of some legal protocols for launching spacecraft Asgardia-1 will launch under guidelines of several undisclosed organizations.
Once it lands at the space station, the group will pop Asgardia-1 inside a special nanosat dispenser and eject it into orbit.
Ram Jakhu, the director of humanity in space.”
“It will start out as a constitutional monarchy.”
Igor Ashurbeyli, Asgardia founding member, “Maybe the photo of your little cat or of your neighbor, of your mother, or a child – whatever comes to your mind, this will be for as long as the spacecraft exists.”
“Though Asgardia-1 will slow down in Earth’s upper atmosphere and burn up within about five years. This citizen data will be copied to any future Asgardian satellites and spacecraft that go to the moon and anywhere in the universe.”
Jakhu said, “We’ll start small and eventually people will be going there, and working, and having their own rules and regulations… This facility will become an independent nation.”
Although, no public details exist yet about what the early colony might look like, how big it will be, or what expense it’d incur.
“Anyone who tries out-of-the-box things is initially ridiculed. Everything that’s amazing starts with a crazy idea. After a while, science fiction becomes science fact, and this is an idea which is just being initiated,” he explained.