Want To Live In The Space?

12 October 2016, Igor Ashurbeyli announced in Paris, France, about the birth of the new space nation Asgardia. 

It officially calls itself the Space Kingdom of Asgardia. Asgardia was from Norse mythology. The Constitution was adopted on 18 June 2017 and it became effective on 9 September 2017.

Asgardia-1 and two other satellites were released in space in on November 2017. Asgardia has claimed that it is now the first nation to have all of its territory in space.

As of March 2019, Asgardia has more than 290,000 citizens and more than 1,040,000 followers around the world.

The Constitution of Asgardia ha three branches: 

• A legislative branch named the Parliament

• An executive branch named the Government

• A judicial branch named the Court. 

The Head of Nation is Igor Ashurbeyli.

The Chairman of Parliament is Lembit Opik. Head of the Government is Ana Mercedes Diaz. Supreme Justice is Zhao Yun.

Asgardia's economy is based on two pillars:

Citizens must become owners of the monetary system. The government is simply a middleman, broker and guarantor of monetary transactions. 

Every citizen must be a participant in the distribution of the Nation's profit. 

The financial component of Asgardia's economy is based upon its two national currencies: Solar and Lunar.

Their languages include English, Spanish, Chinese, Turkish, Italian, Russian, French, Portuguese, Arabic,Hindi, German and Persian.

Asgardia intends to launch a series of satellites into Earth orbit. First satellite was Asgardia-1 which  was aimed to demonstrate the long-term storage of data on a solid-state storage device operating in low Earth orbit.

 The data storage device was loaded with things like family photos supplied by the first 1,500,000 members of Asgardia. After the spacecraft achieves Earth orbit, data can be uploaded or downloaded using the Globalstar satellite network.

Though they intend to access outer space free of the control of existing nations and establish a permanent settlement on the Moon by 2043, according to current law it is not possible.

Can Asgardia claim to be a nation in accordance to the international laws?

There are four main criteria to become a state in international law. According to the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States – a permanent population, a defined territory, a government and the capacity to enter into relations with other states.

What is the condition of Asgardia against these criteria?

1. Territory

The only territory Asgardia claims is “Asgardia-1”. It is a satellite which is the size of a loaf of bread. It contains uploaded data from Asgardian citizens.

Can a satellite be territory? There is no set definition of territory in international law. But the territory must at least be able to host the population of a state. This rule is not fulfilled.

2.Permanent Population:

There is no minimum population size for a country to qualify as a state. But all the citizens have dual citizenship and no one lives in their actual territory which is the satellite.

3.Government

Asgardia has a government but there has been some disagreement over the method of elections. According to the international law, a government must be able to exercise control over its territory and population. Although Asgardia-1 itself may be controlled by the Asgardian government but Asgardian citizens are certainly not.

4.Interstate Relation

Ashurbeyli has written to the governments of at least 32 countries including Colombia, Zimbabwe and Montenegro to congratulate them on their own elections. They had hope for diplomatic correspondence in return but it seems no one has replied yet.

So what do you think? Do you want to live in the space? Do you think they will be able complete their missions? Let us know in the comment section.

WE DON’T OWN THE PICTURES. WE USED THEM FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENTS HAVE BEEN DONE.