In June last year a fledgling micro nation elected its first parliament. The new country boasts a population of 250,000, flag and constitution. But Asgardia is in fact like no other nation on Earth as it is the first-ever space kingdom. Asgardia is the idea of one man with an utopian vision unlike any other.
Russian millionaire Dr Igor Ashurbeyli, current chairman of UNESCO’s Science of Space committee came up with the cosmic concept in 2016.
And after consulting space law experts at McGill University, he decided to start laying the groundwork for his space nation.
In October 2016, the nation began accepting applications for citizenship and received over half a million submissions, which were eventually whittled down to around 200,000, making it theoretically the 169th most populous nation in the world.
Asgardia’s constitution was ratified in August 2017, 147 members of Asgardia’s Parliament were confirmed in April 2018, and Ashurbeyli was elected head of Asgardia this June.
November 2017 saw launch of Asgardia’s first space satellite, ferrying 512 GB of data from its various citizens, granted the nation a territorial presence in space.
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Lena De Winne, CEO and vice-president of Asgardia, told Express.co.uk the importance of the nation’s next goal – producing the first child in space.
She said: “The child, who would be born an Asgardian, is critically important in terms of the survival of the human race as a species.
“Technological advanced as we are, there is a chance we will sadly kill each other, and if we don’t, in some four billion years scientists predict the Sun’s corona will expand until life on Earth becomes uninhabitable.
“By that time, humankind, in order to survive, needs to live somewhere in deep space or between planets.
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“So the first step is to ensure humans can safely, naturally and healthy reproduce in space.
To achieve this incredible milestone in less than 25 years, Asgardia is prioritising research on artificial gravity and protection from space radiation.
According to the Constitution of Asgardia, the nation will create a robotic fleet of spaceships to defend Earth, as well as space arks to ensure humanity’s survival in the case of a catastrophe.
Apart from asteroids and solar flares, Asgardia wants to protect Earth from changes in its magnetosphere, climate change, cosmic radiation from nuclear reactions in supernovae, and infection by alien microorganisms.
Ms De Winne said: “The word ‘ark’ is inspired by Noah’s Ark, because the vision we have discussed is about the survival of the species.
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“The first stage of such a space ark would be in lower Earth orbit and that would be the base for running the necessary experiments for the artificial gravity and radiation protection involved in the gestation ultimately leading to human birth.
“Further along we are discussing Moon arks in lunar orbit and ultimately we are looking to move into deep space.”
Putting aside the cost of all these plans, it remains unclear yet how Ashurbeyli intends to do all this.
The International Space Station cost $160 billion to build and took the cooperation of multiple countries to complete.
And disruptive disrup