"Space nation" Asgardia will launch its first satellite this summer

Last year, an article was published on Geektimes about the space country (or rather, the kingdom) of Asgardia. So far this is not a state, but a non-profit organization, the main goal of which is to establish the first independent state in space. Not somewhere in the stars, but in the Earth’s orbit. The name of the founders of the organization was taken from the city of Asgard, it is the capital of one of the Nine Worlds in Asgardian mythology. There are tightly bound comics and real mythology.



The most interesting thing is that the idea of ​​creating a space state belongs not to a dreamer distracted from earthly affairs, but to a well-known scientist, scientific director of KB-1, chairman of the Presidium of the Independent Expert Council on the problems of aerospace defense of the Russian Federation, member of the Academy of Military Sciences of the Russian Federation, doctor of technical sciences Igor Raufovich Ashurbeyli .



When the idea was presented, it was supported by serious scientists and businessmen from the USA, Canada and Romania. For example, he is supported by David Alexander , director of the Rice Space Institute , dean of the department of physics and astronomy at Rice University; Professor Ram Yakhuh , Director of the Center for the Study of Air and Space Law at McGill University (Canada); Joseph Pelton , Director of the Space and Advanced Communications Research Institute (SACRI) at George Washington University (USA) and the Romanian cosmonaut Dumitru-Dorin Prunariu .



The goal of the project is to create a nation that moves freely in space, extracts minerals from asteroids and protects the Earth from meteorites, space debris and other threats. In addition to scientists, hundreds of thousands of people who have already submitted their applications have expressed their desire to participate in the project. In principle, the population of the space state should not be small. According to the authors of the project, it is about 200,000 people, perhaps more. They will have their own elected government.



On June 13, the founders of Asgardia announced the launch of the first satellite, which would mark the beginning of the glorious history of the space state. The satellite was named Asgardia-1.



“We can say that this year the first Asgardia object will go to space,” said Jeffrey Manber, CEO of NanoRacks, which manufactures micro-satellites, and which is doing the work of creating the Asgardia satellite. He also added that the satellite could be one of the most important ideas the company had to face.





Asgardia-1 is not even a micro, but a nanosatellite, its size is about half the size of a loaf of bread. The weight of the satellite is about 2 kilograms. Well, on board the device - the data downloaded by citizens of Asgardia. The device will be launched using Orbital ATK, during a mission to the ISS (September 12, 2017). The satellite will be loaded into a space truck that delivers everything astronauts need onboard the ISS.



As soon as docking with the station occurs, Asgardia-1 with the help of a special trigger device will go to the calculated orbit. As for the data downloaded to the 512 GB drive, the future citizens of the country preferred to send, basically, photos - of their parents, children, nature, and, of course, cats. The first 100,000 registered residents will receive 300 KB to post their data, another 400 000 receive 200 KB each, and the rest - 100 KB. In total it is planned to mark out the data of one and a half million people. The satellite will not last long in orbit - in about five years it will enter the Earth’s atmosphere and burn in its upper layers.







During the launch of the satellite, the founders confirmed their intention to create a space state, saying that it would be trans-ethnic, trans-national, trans-religious and peaceful. Initially planned to maintain a constitutional monarchy. Now a preliminary version of the Constitution of the state is ready. As part of the verification process, candidates for citizens of a space state will have to vote in favor or abstain from voting for this document. If the vote is given "for" the constitution, the user can send their data.





“Without this constitution, we will be an unreal, fake nation — a complex computer game — and this is not what we want,” said Ashurbeyli. "We want to create a completely serious, legitimate, independent first space nation, which will be recognized by the states of the Earth and the UN."



As for the UN, it is quite possible that the organization will refuse to recognize this state. The problem is that collecting signatures of those who want to become “citizens” is one thing, and the foundation of a real state is another. In addition, Asgardia can already begin problems with US law (since the launch of the satellite is carried out using American systems, it is the laws of this particular country that are in place). The fact is that sending private data of citizens into space is contrary to the laws of several states at once.