Ever imagined life in orbit, away from the pettiness and ugliness of earthly problems such as presidential politics? A “crazy Russian rocket scientist” is pretty close to creating this new reality… in space.
It happens every four years.
“If (insert vile presidential candidate’s name here) gets elected, I’m moving to Canada.”
So you say you’ll leave the country if Donald Trump wins the presidency.
Or perhaps it’s Hillary Clinton’s ascendancy would force you from these shores.
Free Reports:
Whatever your case may be, you now have an incredible new option, besides the Great White North: a new nation in space.
“Any human living on Earth,” including refugees from the American Presidential Election Crisis of 2016, “can become a citizen of Asgardia,” the first nation-state in space.
A group of scientists from around the “old” world, led by Russian engineer and businessman Igor Ashurbeyli, plans to launch the first Asgardia satellite in late 2017.
During an October 12, 2016, presentation in Paris, Ashurbeyli declared, “We have decided to create the first space nation… available to all citizens of Earth,” according to the Financial Times.
You can go to asgardia.space/citizenship right now to register for your new home in orbit. As of yesterday morning — October 13, 2016 — 56,299 people had already accepted Ashurbeyli’s invitation.
“Any human living on Earth,” including refugees from the American Presidential Election Crisis of 2016, “can become a citizen of Asgardia,” the first nation-state in space.
Once Asgardia’s theoretical census hits 100,000, Ashurbeyli and his team will start negotiations for recognition by and membership in the United Nations.
You can also compete in contests to design the Asgardian flag, develop its insignia, and write its anthem.
It’s an ambitious plan, with significant hurdles. Among them is Article 2 of the Outer Space Treaty, which bars “ownership” of space.
Indeed, Ashurbeyli conceded, “What we are setting up is a digital state, but we’re not going to put anyone in space just yet.”
He also acknowledged that his plan might be dismissed as “nonsense” dispensed by “some crazy Russian rocket scientist.”
But like Elon Musk, Ashurbeyli’s major motivation is to get people excited about space exploration again.
He envisions an outer-space oasis where Earth’s conflicts have been left behind. It’s quite a dream, perhaps a fanciful one.
But his team includes reputable scientists, and his backers, according to The New Scientist, include David Alexander of the Rice Space Institute in Houston, Texas, and former cosmonaut Dumitru-Dorin Prunariu.
Alexander described the concept of Asgardia as “exciting.”
But like Elon Musk, Ashurbeyli’s major motivation is to get people excited about space exploration again.
Ashurbeyli himself is the former CEO of Russian defense contractor Almaz-Antey, and he previously founded software and consulting company Socium. He was also awarded the State Science & Technology Prize, “the highest honor a Russian scientist can achieve.”
Asgardia’s first project will be a partnership with another Ashurbeyli adventure, the Universal Robotic Battle Cosmic Platform (URBOCOP).
URBOCOP “would be an armed, unmanned space station capable of monitoring Earth and space. It would have on-board weapons capable of destroying both natural and man-made objects threatening Earth — including ballistic missiles launched by one national against another.”
Ashurbeyli wrapped up his presentation in Paris by asking and then answering his own question.
“Is it madness? Only time will tell.”
As “crazy” as Ashurbeyli’s orbital ambition may be, it seems absolutely grounded relative to those who would see us colonize a potentially Earth-like planet in the Alpha Centauri system.
And yet the search for humankind’s next home continues in earnest, as we detailed in an August 29, 2016, discussion of the discovery of what may be “Earth 2.0,” Proxima b.
As “crazy” as Ashurbeyli’s orbital ambition may be, it seems absolutely grounded relative to those who would see us colonize a potentially Earth-like planet in the Alpha Centauri system.
Proxima b is in the habitable zone of Alpha Centauri, the star nearest our sun.
A recent effort to capture Proxima b’s transit between Proxima Centauri and Earth, providing the ideal opportunity for our telescopes to capture images of our nearest exoplanet, failed.
And we need answers to critical questions about Proxima b’s size, atmosphere, and surface conditions.
Where David Kipping of Columbia University and his colleagues failed using the MOST Space Telescope, a team at France’s National Center for Scientific Research (or CNRS, for the French Centre national de la recherche scientifique) may have succeeded.
According to an October 6, 2016, press release from CNRS’ National Institute for Earth Sciences and Astronomy (or INSU, for the French Institut national des sciences de l’univers), an international team led by researchers from the Marseille Astrophysics Laboratory have “determined” Proxima b’s “dimensions and properties of its surface.”
A study to be published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters concludes that Proxima b could be an “ocean planet,” covered entirely by water:
These new measures have shown that this planet, named Proxima Centauri b — or simply Proxima b — has a mass close to that of the Earth (1.3 times the latter) and orbits its star at a distance of 0.05 astronomical units (1/10th of the sun-Mercury distance). Contrary to what one might think, as little distance does not imply a high temperature on the surface of Proxima b. As Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf, its mass and radius correspond to only 1/10th of the sun, and its brightness is a thousand times smaller than our star. At such a distance, b Proxima is therefore in the habitable zone of its star. It is likely to harbor liquid water at its surface and therefore to harbor life-forms.
The study compares its water to that of the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn. Its core may be like that of Mercury.
Most encouragingly, “These results provide the basis for future studies to determine the habitability of Proxima b.”
Proxima b will be able to satisfy neither anti-Donald nor anti-Hillary pilgrims.
And Asgardia offers only an oasis of the mind right now.
But it’s important to think big — or even bigger than that.
Interstellar — directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, and Jessica Chastain, with a jarring second-act cameo by Matt Damon and key character roles played by John Lithgow, Michael Caine, and Ellen Burstyn — offers a discouraging look at what an “ocean planet” may have in store for humanity.
Damon’s rescue from a different, icy “new world” is attempted yet again (see Saving Private Ryan, The Martian), and it doesn’t go well.
But ultimately, our search for a new home is successful.
Interstellar is not so old. But it is good — visually stunning, well written, and, though the blight that motivates the “interstellar” aspects of the movie is way dramatized, basically grounded in science.
Smart Investing,
David Dittman
Editorial Director, Wall Street Daily
The post Mad Russian Plans New Satellite-Based Nation-State appeared first on Wall Street Daily.