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posted by takyon on Friday October 14 2016, @11:11AM   Printer-friendly
from the heaven's-orbit dept.

In what sounds like a backstory for a sci-fi B-movie, a team from the Aerospace International Research Center (AIRC) has announced plans for Asgardia, a "space nation" satellite that will operate as its own country, independent of any Earthly nation state. At a press conference in Paris this week, project leader Dr Igor Ashurbeyli outlined the philosophical, legal and scientific goals and issues of Asgardia, as well as put out a call for Earthlings to apply to be its first citizens, and help design its flag and other national symbols.

Fans of Norse mythology (or Marvel movies) will recognize the name Asgardia as stemming from the city in the skies ruled by Odin. According to Ashurbeyli, it was chosen to represent the unifying philosophy behind the project.

"It is the realization of man's eternal dream to leave his cradle on Earth and expand into the Universe," Ashurbeyli explains. "Asgardia's philosophical envelope is to 'digitalize' the Noosphere, creating a mirror of humanity in space but without Earthly division into states, religions and nations. In Asgardia we are all just Earthlings!"

Tip for Asgardia: If Matt Damon wants to use your Med Bay, let him.

takyon: Also at BBC and asgardia.space.


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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 14 2016, @02:35PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 14 2016, @02:35PM (#414305)

    Orbital habitats around Earth make much more sense to me than planetary colonies, at least in the short term. No nasty moondust. No unpredictable atmospheric weather conditions. Plenty of solar power. Only one gravity well to deal with instead of two, making transport to and from easier. Closer to home. Capture and retrieve asteroids using drone vessels for materials and refine them in orbit. Surely that should be easier than a building an ore mining and processing site on mars.

    Biggest problem is the effects of zero-g on human health but surely there are ways around that, like special foods or genetic engineering. If push comes to shove, you could always use a large spinning ring to simulate gravity at about half a G, but that would require a very large structure if you want to avoid motion sickness.

    I would go there, except for the likely horrendous latency and bandwidth caps for internet access to earth. Bad for gaming. Also working on a space station sounds like a lot of hard work, at least initially.

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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Friday October 14 2016, @05:17PM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Friday October 14 2016, @05:17PM (#414372) Journal

    I would go there, except for the likely horrendous latency and bandwidth caps for internet access to earth. Bad for gaming.

    Would it really be that bad if it was in orbit around the Earth? The Moon is where you start to get bad latency problems.

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    • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday October 14 2016, @06:58PM

      by bob_super (1357) on Friday October 14 2016, @06:58PM (#414408)

      They told me they can't dig a trench for the fiber install.

  • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday October 14 2016, @07:54PM

    by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Friday October 14 2016, @07:54PM (#414427) Journal

    Orbital habitats are a good long term answer. In the short term they're terrible. We don't have the (nearly) closed ecosystem solved, so you're going to need massive imports of supplies. You need to shield the people against radiation with a good enough shield to withstand a strong solar storm, perhaps even a maximal solar storm. And the thing need to spin for gravity, so it can't be small.

    Once you solve those problems, I believe the rest of the known problems are easy...except for getting there.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 14 2016, @08:17PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 14 2016, @08:17PM (#414436)

    Someone else (e.g. a structural engineer or a materials engineer) would look at regolith and see raw materials for construction|manufacturing.

    ...and, with no wind/weather, I don't see how the stuff might be categorized as "nasty".
    Surely the living space will have an airlock where stuff on your boots/clothing will be dealt with.
    ...and, once the habitat is constructed, what's the purpose of going outside anyway?

    Only one gravity well [...] Closer

    Now, those -are- significant.

    a large spinning ring

    It needn't be a complete ring.
    2 tethered chambers would do it.
    ...but, yeah, it will need a HUGE radius.

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