Will You Become A Citizen Of Asgardia, The First Nation State In Space?

Megalith

Megalith

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Scientists are proposing a nation state in space serving as “a state-of-the-art protective shield for all humankind from cosmic, manmade, and natural threats to life on earth.” Anyone can join up at the official website, and once signups hit 100,000, the founders will attempt to submit it to the United Nations for status of state.

Dubbed “Asgardia” after one of the mythical worlds inhabited by the Norse gods, the team say the “new nation” will eventually become a member of the United Nations, with its own flag and anthem devised by members of the public through a series of competitions. 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.
 
Sooooo....Elysium, then. Hillary 2016, if you got the cash, leave the deplorables behind. :D

elysium_matt_damon_jodie_foster_neill_blomkamp_04.jpg
 
No.

Buncha space nutters. Can't get excited about living in a tin can in space.
 
Economic warfare and political realities will make sure that "Asgardia" is nothing more than a silly dream at best, and a dangerous experiment that will waste a lot of time, energy, resources, and human lives at worst.

  • No fresh food?
  • No hyper-efficient recycling process?
  • Lack of gravity causing adverse effects upon the human skeleton?
  • No nearby area for exploitation of natural resources (sorry, "dark matter" is currently not really exploitable, except in an LSD-induced fantasy, I suppose).
  • Expense of launching "Asgardians" into space? (with apologies to MCU Thor fans, no Bifrost here. that's all Bull-Schiit, and not even particularly Magni, either) ;):D
  • World governments interning would-be "citizens of Asgardia", thus preventing them from going to their country? (And what does Asgardia have in terms of methods to [forcibly, if need be] convince other nations that keeping Asgardians on Earth is NOT in their best interest?)
  • Besides, who's gonna be in charge, and who's gonna write/carry out the laws, etc? Too democratic = Germany's Weimar Republic (yes, right before a certain guy initialed A.H). Too authoritarian = your pick of super repressive regimes.
  • Scientists, by training/mentality/mindset, are NOT politicians, and can't be expected to run a true "space nation". Yep, "Asgardia" becomes "Hel".
  • Capital required -- you would need an immense amount of money, even if applying "Elon Musk/SpaceX balls-to-the-wall" methods to not only start, but sustain such a project. Right now, only a superpower (or coalition of First World states) has that capability, which means that "Asgardia" will, essentially, become a colony of said superpower/coalition. (History of the Americas in a nutshell).

Yes, this is, as it stands, a truly laughable, myopic, and Utopian dream.

If anything, Isaac Asimov's "Robot" novels depict (more accurately, and over a much longer period of time), one plausible scenario as to the ultimate effects of initial space colonization from Earth over a period of 1000-2000 years.
 
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In space your bones become brittle and long, the lack of gravity causes degradation of vision and your eyes to bulge out of your skull over time, headaches are more common due to the increased blood pressure in your head, and generally you just become quite sickly.

You would have far greater quality of life just living in a biodome bubble in the middle of the desert... which essentially is like going to prison, which most people consider a punishment.
 
Yeah that ain't going to happen. Allowing a "state" in space for a place that is by definition "off limits" as far as ownership. Then allowing a state to be in a location where people don't actually live? Yeah nerds of internlandia go fuck yourself for wasting time of anyone for even having to consider saying no to this shit.
 
Wouldn't signing up for this mean your giving up your current citizenship?

Bubye US passport...
 
Ducman69 said:
In space your bones become brittle and long, the lack of gravity causes degradation of vision and your eyes to bulge out of your skull over time, headaches are more common due to the increased blood pressure in your head, and generally you just become quite sickly.

You would have far greater quality of life just living in a biodome bubble in the middle of the desert... which essentially is like going to prison, which most people consider a punishment.
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That and also the increased exposure to cosmic radiation which has some huge impacts on long term health. Until we figure out this gravity thing, all of this maintains itself as just a dream. At least the Mars One project has a realistic goal although I do not believe any one of them will survive to actually colonize on Mars.
 
So, how much money does one need to spend to have their name attached to said utopia that they will never physically touch?
This is a pipedream, nothing more.
 
There's no intention of doing or installing anything in space. It's just more legal quackery by sovereign citizens.
 
hummm so a satellite that moves through other countries territories... isn't that like war by means other? when the satellite moved into space ten miles above a physical country on the earth they are attempting to steal a country sovereignty... twenty fives miles into internal waters is part of a country... twenty file miles up should work as well. The existing satellites are not an issue because countries can benefit from them... like the GOES EAST and GOES west, those are there to provide pictures of the earth no smaller than one kilometer or four tenths of a mile or 256 acres.

I have multiple citizenship and it is mess to file i9 in the usa, to deal with different countries tax codes. But a made up country with no land mass... does that mean we get to deport you to the bottom of the Mariana Trench or toss you out of plane flying over the continent of Antarctica? When foreigners commit a crime in any country the judicial body of that country has the right of deporting foreigners if they want. So being part of made of country means if your visa is ever revoked you are in major trouble since the odds are good they would simply shoot you out of hand as an insurgent.
 
Has anyone verified that this isn't just advance/viral marketing for, like, the next Bioshock, or something?
I mean really... 'Rapture' in space.
 
Would I like to live in space should the technology provide an experience to sci fi? Yes.

Do i want to start that journey with a bunch of internet space nutters? Not a chance in hell.
 
drakken said:
hummm so a satellite that moves through other countries territories... isn't that like war by means other? when the satellite moved into space ten miles above a physical country on the earth they are attempting to steal a country sovereignty... twenty fives miles into internal waters is part of a country... twenty file miles up should work as well. The existing satellites are not an issue because countries can benefit from them... like the GOES EAST and GOES west, those are there to provide pictures of the earth no smaller than one kilometer or four tenths of a mile or 256 acres.
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That's not how it works at all.

"There is no firm boundary where outer space begins. However the Kármán line, at an altitude of 100 km (62 mi) above sea level, is conventionally used as the start of outer space in space treaties and for aerospace records keeping." -Wikipedia entry for outer space

I have multiple citizenship and it is mess to file i9 in the usa, to deal with different countries tax codes. But a made up country with no land mass... does that mean we get to deport you to the bottom of the Mariana Trench or toss you out of plane flying over the continent of Antarctica? When foreigners commit a crime in any country the judicial body of that country has the right of deporting foreigners if they want. So being part of made of country means if your visa is ever revoked you are in major trouble since the odds are good they would simply shoot you out of hand as an insurgent.
Click to expand...

In the US, sovereign citizens mostly just tend to end up in jail if they get annoying enough. They only get shot when they get all shooty at police and other citizens.
 
So now I can go start the space rebellion to thwart all the space nutters. We will be SPU, Space Preppers United. /img..tea party flag with alien snake..img/ were going way off the grid now.
 
If you visit the homepage, their main concerns seem to be:
  • Choosing a flag
  • Choosing an anthem
  • Choosing an insignia

Sounds to me that if you join up, RIGHT NOW, you can help pick out what color the magic underwear is going to be.
 
I get the feeling most commenters did not read the article. Everyone would still be living on Earth from what I could gather.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Yeah that ain't going to happen. Allowing a "state" in space for a place that is by definition "off limits" as far as ownership.
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That only applies to countries that have signed the OST, which is most nations. However the people planning to launch Asgardia plan to do so from a country that hasn't signed the OST. The idea is they will launch out there to wherever and plant their flag and say "mine".

It is interesting. Assuming it goes forward and they do this, they have to force recognition by other countries in an area where other countries don't recognize sovereignty. Nothing will probably happen until Asgardia tries defending their nation lines...then others will be forced to act.
 
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