{"id":96763,"date":"2016-10-14T10:29:27","date_gmt":"2016-10-14T14:29:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/countingpips.com\/?p=96763"},"modified":"2016-10-14T07:30:14","modified_gmt":"2016-10-14T11:30:14","slug":"mad-russian-plans-new-satellite-based-nation-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/2016\/10\/mad-russian-plans-new-satellite-based-nation-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Mad Russian Plans New Satellite-Based Nation-State"},"content":{"rendered":"
October 14, 2016<\/div>
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By WallStreetDaily.com<\/u><\/a> \"Mad<\/p>\n

Ever imagined life in orbit, away from the pettiness and ugliness of earthly problems such as presidential politics? A \u201ccrazy Russian rocket scientist\u201d is pretty close to creating this new reality\u2026 in space.<\/strong><\/i><\/p>\n

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It happens every four years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf (insert vile presidential candidate\u2019s name here) gets elected, I\u2019m moving to Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n

So you say you\u2019ll leave the country if Donald Trump wins the presidency.<\/p>\n

Or perhaps it\u2019s Hillary Clinton\u2019s ascendancy would force you from these shores.<\/p>

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Whatever your case may be, you now have an incredible new option, besides the Great White North: a new nation in space.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny human living on Earth,\u201d including refugees from the American Presidential Election Crisis of 2016, \u201ccan become a citizen of Asgardia,\u201d the first nation-state in space.<\/p>\n

A group of scientists from around the \u201cold\u201d world, led by Russian engineer and businessman Igor Ashurbeyli, plans to launch the first Asgardia satellite in late 2017.<\/p>\n

During an October 12, 2016, presentation in Paris, Ashurbeyli declared, \u201cWe have decided to create the first space nation\u2026 available to all citizens of Earth,\u201d according to the Financial Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n

You can go to asgardia.space\/citizenship<\/strong><\/a> right now to register for your new home in orbit. As of yesterday morning \u2014 October 13, 2016 \u2014 56,299 people had already accepted Ashurbeyli\u2019s invitation.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny human living on Earth,\u201d including refugees from the American Presidential Election Crisis of 2016, \u201ccan become a citizen of Asgardia,\u201d the first nation-state in space.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Once Asgardia\u2019s theoretical census hits 100,000, Ashurbeyli and his team will start negotiations for recognition by and membership in the United Nations.<\/p>\n

You can also compete in contests to design the Asgardian flag, develop its insignia, and write its anthem.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an ambitious plan, with significant hurdles. Among them is Article 2 of the Outer Space Treaty, which bars \u201cownership\u201d of space.<\/p>\n

Indeed, Ashurbeyli conceded, \u201cWhat we are setting up is a digital state, but we\u2019re not going to put anyone in space just yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also acknowledged that his plan might be dismissed as \u201cnonsense\u201d dispensed by \u201csome crazy Russian rocket scientist.\u201d<\/p>\n

But like Elon Musk, Ashurbeyli\u2019s major motivation is to get people excited about space exploration again.<\/p>\n

He envisions an outer-space oasis where Earth\u2019s conflicts have been left behind. It\u2019s quite a dream, perhaps a fanciful one.<\/p>\n

But his team includes reputable scientists, and his backers, according to The New Scientist<\/em>, include David Alexander of the Rice Space Institute in Houston, Texas, and former cosmonaut Dumitru-Dorin Prunariu.<\/p>\n

Alexander described the concept of Asgardia as \u201cexciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

But like Elon Musk, Ashurbeyli\u2019s major motivation is to get people excited about space exploration again.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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, \u201cthe highest honor a Russian scientist can achieve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asgardia\u2019s first project will be a partnership with another Ashurbeyli adventure, the Universal Robotic Battle Cosmic Platform (URBOCOP).<\/p>\n

URBOCOP \u201cwould 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 \u2014 including ballistic missiles launched by one national against another.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ashurbeyli wrapped up his presentation in Paris by asking and then answering his own question.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it madness? Only time will tell.\u201d<\/p>\n

As \u201ccrazy\u201d as Ashurbeyli\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

And yet the search for humankind\u2019s next home continues in earnest, as we detailed in an August 29, 2016, discussion<\/strong><\/a> of the discovery of what may be \u201cEarth 2.0,\u201d Proxima b.<\/p>\n

As \u201ccrazy\u201d as Ashurbeyli\u2019s 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.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Proxima b is in the habitable zone of Alpha Centauri, the star nearest our sun.<\/p>\n

A recent effort to capture Proxima b\u2019s transit between Proxima Centauri and Earth, providing the ideal opportunity for our telescopes to capture images of our nearest exoplanet, failed.<\/p>\n

And we need answers to critical questions about Proxima b\u2019s size, atmosphere, and surface conditions.<\/p>\n

Where David Kipping of Columbia University and his colleagues failed using the MOST Space Telescope, a team at France\u2019s National Center for Scientific Research (or CNRS, for the French Centre national de la recherche scientifique<\/em>) may have succeeded.<\/p>\n

According to an October 6, 2016, press release from CNRS\u2019 National Institute for Earth Sciences and Astronomy (or INSU, for the French Institut national des sciences de l\u2019univers<\/em>), an international team led by researchers from the Marseille Astrophysics Laboratory have \u201cdetermined\u201d Proxima b\u2019s \u201cdimensions and properties of its surface.\u201d<\/p>\n

A study to be published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters<\/em> concludes that Proxima b could be an \u201cocean planet,\u201d covered entirely by water:<\/p>\n

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These new measures have shown that this planet, named Proxima Centauri b \u2014 or simply Proxima b \u2014 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.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The study compares its water to that of the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn. Its core may be like that of Mercury.<\/p>\n

Most encouragingly, \u201cThese results provide the basis for future studies to determine the habitability of Proxima b.\u201d<\/p>\n

Proxima b will be able to satisfy neither anti-Donald nor anti-Hillary pilgrims.<\/p>\n

And Asgardia offers only an oasis of the mind right now.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s important to think big \u2014 or even bigger than that.<\/p>\n

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Old Things New<\/h2>\n

Interstellar<\/em> \u2014 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 \u2014 offers a discouraging look at what an \u201cocean planet\u201d may have in store for humanity.<\/p>\n

Damon\u2019s rescue from a different, icy \u201cnew world\u201d is attempted yet again (see Saving Private Ryan<\/em>, The Martian<\/em>), and it doesn\u2019t go well.<\/p>\n

But ultimately, our search for a new home is successful.<\/p>\n

Interstellar<\/em> is not so old. But it is good \u2014 visually stunning, well written, and, though the blight that motivates the \u201cinterstellar\u201d aspects of the movie is way dramatized, basically grounded in science.<\/p>\n

Smart Investing,<\/p>\n

David Dittman
\nEditorial Director, Wall Street Daily<\/i><\/p>\n

The post Mad Russian Plans New Satellite-Based Nation-State<\/a> appeared first on Wall Street Daily<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By WallStreetDaily.com Ever imagined life in orbit, away from the pettiness and ugliness of earthly problems such as presidential politics? A \u201ccrazy Russian rocket scientist\u201d is pretty close to creating this new reality\u2026 in space. It happens every four years. \u201cIf (insert vile presidential candidate\u2019s name here) gets elected, I\u2019m moving to Canada.\u201d So you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","no-post-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96763"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96771,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96763\/revisions\/96771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}