And there’s no room for that kind of thinking if we’re all going to live off-world. In fact, the ‘huge baggage’ of our earthly problems has been condemned by the founder of the first ever ‘space nation’. In October 2016 Russian billionaire Dr Igor Ashurbeyli announced the creation of Asgardia, and in June 2018 he was inaugurated as its head. There are currently 20,000 verified citizens from around 200 countries, who have each received a Certificate of Asgardia.

Asgardia is a space nation with its own politics (Picture: James Vaughan/Asgardia)

The space nation wants to be free of earthly baggage (Picture: James Vaughan/Asgardia)

Opening Asgardia’s first Space Science and Investment Congress in Darmstadt, Germany, Dr. Ashurbeyli set out the priorities as long-term space exploration and settlement in space.

He said: ‘It would be dangerous to take on this long space journey the huge baggage of earthly problems accumulated over millennia. We simply cannot afford militarisation of space by projecting earthly borders onto it. ‘One should realise that only about 20 countries out of 229 have access to space. This is discrimination of space calibre against the countries which are unjustly called ‘the third world countries’ and against their citizens. ‘And even simpler – against earthlings and Asgardians.’

Asgardia was created in 2018 (Picture: James Vaughan/Asgardia)

He added that the nation is capable of bringing global democracy to space science, saying scientists are constricted by national legislation. Dr Ashurbeyli told the congress the main ‘visionary and scientific mission’ of Asgardia is the birth of the first human child in space.

He continued: ‘I will start by brushing aside hypocritical speculations about risks of childbirth for both mother and child. We simply owe this chance to ourselves now, when planet Earth is pretty much explored, and how finite human existence is on earth is already recognised. ‘All the magnificent projects for settlement of Mars and similar extravaganza are a one-way ticket in the absence of the first human child.’

What is Asgardia?

One of the first Asgardian projects will be the creation of a network of satellites to protect the Earth from space hazards such as asteroids, solar flares and orbiting man-made debris. Asgardia is named after the City of the Gods in Norse mythology. Its main aim is to develop space technology unfettered by Earthly politics and laws, leading ultimately to a permanent orbiting home where its citizens can live and work. People can apply online to be Asgardian citizens via the website http://www.asgardia.space. Those already recognised as citizens are now being asked to vote on key elements of the Asgardian constitution. Asgardia-1, launched on November 12, 2017, was roughly the size of a loaf of bread, measuring just 20cm (eight inches) long and weighing about 2.3kg (5lbs). It contained a solid state hard drive containing the citizen data of the first Asgardians and two particle detectors for measuring radiation levels in space.

Would you like to go to Asgardia? (Picture: James Vaughan/Asgardia)

Despite the lofty goals of Asgardia, some prominent scientists have come out against the idea of humankind trying to migrate to another planet or live among the stars.

Nobel prize winning astrophysicist Michel Mayor has suggested that humans will never leave Earth. ‘If we are talking about exoplanets, things should be clear: we will not migrate there. These planets are much, much too far away,’ he told Agence France-Press.

Swiss astrophysicist Michel Mayor, center, has received the Nobel Prize 2019 in Physics (Picture: Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)

‘Even in the very optimistic case of a livable planet that is not too far, say a few dozen light years, which is not a lot, it’s in the neighborhood, the time to go there is considerable. ‘We are talking about hundreds of millions of days using the means we have available today.’ Rather than jumping on the Asgardia bandwagon, the 77-year-old said issues like climate change are far more serious. ‘We must take care of our planet,’ he urged.

Jeff Parsons. metro.co.uk