Scientists Unveil Plans For First Space Nation 'Asgardia,' Open Citizenship Applications (theguardian.com)

Scientists and legal experts have unveiled plans for the "first nation state in space." The state is called "Asgardia" after one of the mythical worlds inhabited by the Norse gods, and it will eventually become a member of the United Nations -- complete with its own flag and anthem. The Guardian reports: According to the project website, Asgardia "will offer an independent platform free from the constraint of a land-based country's laws. It will become a place it in orbit which is truly 'no man's land.'" Initially, it would seem, this new nation will consist of a single satellite, scheduled to be launched next year, with its citizens residing firmly on terra firma. Speaking to the Guardian through an interpreter, the project lead Igor Ashurbeyli, said: "Physically the citizens of that nation state will be on Earth; they will be living on different countries on Earth, so they will be a citizen of their own country and at the same time they will be citizens of Asgardia." "When the number of those applications goes above 100,000 we can officially apply to the UN for the status of state," he added. According to the project website, "Any human living on Earth can become a citizen of Asgardia," with the site featuring a simple registration form. At the time of writing more than 1000 individuals had already signed up. At present, the Outer Space Treaty that underpins international space law states that responsibility and liability for objects sent into space lies with the nation that launched them. But the project team claims that Asgardia will set a new precedent, shifting responsibility to the new "space nation" itself. "The existing state agencies represent interests of their own countries and there are not so many countries in the world that have those space agencies," said Ashurbeyli. "The ultimate aim is to create a legal platform to ensure protection of planet Earth and to provide access to space technologies for those who do not have that access at the moment."

Comments

Re:Outer Space Treaty

[Anonymous Coward]

The Assgaurdian people have not ratified that terran treaty. They are not bound to it's restrictions.

Re:Hmm....

[Samantha Wright]

Tada: it's a micronation... in space!

Of course it's unrealistic armchair-libertarian drivel: the magnetosphere is a harsh mistress, after all.

What's interesting about this development is that it isn't a nearly-entirely American endeavour, which is often the case with such ambitions; Asgardia seems to be Russian and the AIRC supporting it is Viennese. I suspect we'll see a lot more anti-authoritarian behaviour from Europeans in the coming years as a) the EU weakens, b) the Internet transmits political memes that were previously comparatively contained by media limitations like talk radio and poor English literacy, and c) people already exposed to (b) come of age.

The much more feasible version of "let's get off the Earth so we can get away from our countries' laws" is called seasteading, and generally involves a platform in international waters. There's one clear non-Libertarian, non-American example of seasteading (Sealand, UK) which is fairly old and unusually successful by micronation standards. These days, however, the idea is generally associated with these guys, who have been funded by Peter Thiel. They, unquestionably, are primarily concerned with ways to dodge regulation. Without a realistic means of building such a gigantic physical presence, though, they certainly aren't going to be doing much of that; at best they'd end up creating their own passports that no one would accept.

Re:Just one question

[Ol Olsoc]

Where will the $50 trillion dollars necessary to build it come from?

See, there's actually a difference between saying you're going to do something and actually doing it.

This is nothing new. I've worked with a lot of PhDs.

And you don't read articles either.

Most, if not all, are completely bonkers socially and totally out of touch with reality. They spend so much time in the 'academia' fantasy land hyper-focused on their specialty, that even "stuper-doofus" names like dumb Ass-gardia sounds good to them. What a laugh riot.

Um, interesting. You don't read the article, and fixate on a jeramiad. I've worked mostly with Ph.D's (note spelling) my entire career, and you know what? The pretty much fit a cross section of all people, with the exception of there aren't many stupid ones, and they rend away from activities that stupid people engage in.

And there are a few doofuses, just like regular folk.

The real irony is they indulge in infantilization of those around them, or anyone who disagrees with them, so as not to have to actually deal with their loony tendencies. Assgardia is a (heavily smoked) pipe dream.

Yarbles! A large part of my work with these folk was analysis of their ideas. They were universally grateful when I pointed out fatal flaws.

The only caveat I'd note was that my work tended toward the scientific end of the spectrum, but still worked with a lot of disciiplines. Any assholes got dropped pretty quickly. And asshole distribution isn't any higher among Ph.D's than among the general public.