The Space Nation of Asgardia Will Make Arabic as One of the Official Languages
By: Michaela Schrum/ Arab America Ambassador Blogger
Recently, a new nation was announced. It’s called the Space Kingdom of Asgardia and its creators intend for Asgardia to be the first nation to live entirely in outer space. With over 1,500,000 citizens and thousands more waiting to be processed, many other earthlings are perplexed.
What is this about? One of the biggest questions we had, when we saw this, was: do these people live in space? The short answer is, no. But creators of this nation would say: “Not yet”. The new nation exists almost entirely on the internet for the moment but creator Igor Ashurbeyli intends to launch a series of satellites into orbit around Earth that contains the nations’ documents.
The first to be launched went into orbit November 12, 2017. Approximately the size of a small toaster, the satellite called “Asgardia-1” is a file storage device that was preloaded with files like family photos from the first members to join Asgardia.
Igor Ashurbeyli is a billionaire, Russian scientist and is the creator of Asgardia. He is currently the sole investor of Asgardia, meaning that he is the only one paying for Asgardia. But according to a statement documented by CNN, Ashurbeyli hopes to move funding to crowdfunding soon.
However, the most amazing thing about this crazy idea is its mission. Ashurbeyli hopes that Asgardia’s mission is to provide a “peaceful society” and protect Earth from outside threats like asteroids and other debris as detailed in the nation’s constitution. Anyone with an email address, who is over 18 years old and in good standing with the law is eligible to apply for citizenship to Asgardia.
Asgarian officials say that they hope that Asgardia will operate as a trans-ethnic, trans-religious, and diverse community.
As part of this huge initiative, they have made Arabic as one of the official languages. Asgardia’s constitution says that the official languages will be the 12 most common languages spoken by its citizens, and one of these is Arabic.
Asgardia eventually hopes to establish close-to-Earth habitats in space as the next step towards independence, as well as moving its capital to the moon or a space arch.
This may appear to be a concept out of a sci-fi movie but it does have some Earthlings scratching their heads, wondering what will be next. But it also should give us hope that other nations are being recognized–we hope that Palestine will be next!
