Are you ready to become part of the first "cosmic nation" and live at the orbital station?

"Asgardia" is a rather unusual project, the purpose of which is to create a separate nation in space. Last month, its authors announced their intention to eventually build a space station in near-Earth orbit and on the Moon.

Launch of the first satellite

This rather ambitious goal was announced at a press conference in Hong Kong. Also, "Asgardia" has submitted plans to launch its first satellite Asgardia-1 in the autumn of this year.

As already mentioned, "Asgardia" is the world's first space nation. In September, it is planned to launch a small cube-satellite (an ultra-small artificial satellite) on the Orbital ATK Cygnus spacecraft from Wallops, Virginia. This cube is a flying 512-gigabyte hard drive that will be deployed from the International Space Station. He will collect data for five years.

Information about the first Asgardians

People who would like to become part of the cosmic nation, that is, Asgardians, could register in this project online. Users who have already done this will be able to upload their data to cubsat. The creators of the project did this so that the members of the first space nation could upload their photos and messages, but there is a possibility that this cube-slab can become a kind of repository of illegal content. Nevertheless, the creators of "Asgardia" plan to check all the data before they are sent. Each person will be able to download 300 kilobits of data to the satellite.

Dr. Igor Ashurbeyli, who heads this project, says that Asgardia-1 will store free of charge data for 1.5 million Asgardians on board the satellite. "We are experiencing a historical moment, because your names and data will forever remain in the memory of the new space nation, as they will be reinstalled on every new Asgardia satellite that we launch."

Reflection on the project

When the first reports of the new project appeared, they were hardly taken seriously. It seemed to all that "Asgardia" is an attempt to create a new nation only in words. Many people registered online and called themselves Asgardians only for fun. Therefore, when the company announced its plans to also build a space station, this caused surprise to many people.

Concept

The conceptual image published by the company shows a giant space station, along which people walk, and vehicles fly nearby. However, the authors of the project have not yet explained how they plan to achieve this goal. Perhaps they hope to use centrifugal force and with its help to create artificial gravity? So far we can not answer this question.

Another conceptual image, which the authors of the project published, seems more realistic. It shows the modular and large ring space stations.

Needless to say, these images are just a concept. It is unlikely that a company that wants to be taken seriously can achieve this by publishing illustrations of bizarre structures that can not be built in the near future.

The Parliament of the New Nation

However, the news of the construction of the space station was not the only strange statement at a press conference in Hong Kong. It turns out that in six months "Asgardia" plans to form its own parliament. The authors of the project also presented a "national calendar" with three festive dates. This is the Day of National Unity (June 18), the birthday of "Asgardia" (October 12) and the Day of the Year (December 31). But that's not all. You can also apply to become a "member of parliament" of "Asgardia". However, for this you need to collect 10 thousand people. And from June 18, the space nation will also receive its constitution, flag and national anthem, for which you will be able to vote.

To do this, you need to be a registered citizen of "Asgardia" (which can be done on the official website). The authors of the project argue that their nation already has more than 190,000 registered citizens from 200 countries, which makes Asgardia the 185th country in the world in terms of population.

Upcoming Goals

The project manager says that their first satellite will become a stepping stone for a wider network. They will be used to search for asteroids, observe solar flares and track space debris. This is perhaps a more realistic goal than creating a giant station in orbit where hundreds of thousands of people could live.