Welcome back to the show. In recent months, Trump has done so much to turn America’s
clock backwards it’s easy to forget that he does have a vision for the future, though
of course it’s a stupid one. A sixth branch of the United States Armed Forces called the
Space Force. We’re going to be going to space. Space Force. You know it’s times
like this when I’m really moved by the unfathomable vastness of space the universe might be so
big that even Donald Trump can’t ruin most of it, at least that’s the hope. Amy Hoggart
recently met with some pioneers that share that optimism. Earth, our pale blue dot, is
in hopeless turmoil. The main problems facing Earth today are prejudice. Climate change.
Conflict and war. Plastics. These concerned souls are gathered because they may have found
the solution to our problems creating a new nation in space. Asgardia, the first space
nation of the united humankind has been born. Asgardia will be a peace loving country based
on spaceships orbiting Earth someday. For now, they’re starting on this planet, specifically
at a palace in Austria, where they’re meeting for the first time to inaugurate their new
government headed by their founder, Russian billionaire Dr. Igor Ashurbeyli. They already
have a flag, a constitution, and a hit single. So far, over 200,000 Earth people have signed
up and they plan to be living in this space utopia in 25 years. Every time humanity moves
somewhere yeah everything gets better. From Africa to Europe Europe to America then East
Coast to West Coast. This douche pilgrim is right, Earth will get better when he moves.
And his fellow Asgardians are hard at work perfecting their democracy. It’s extremely
important to establish a democratic state here. We have our representatives. Yep. We
have our head of nation. Was he democratically elected. The king is never democratically
elected. Got it, progressive democracy with an all-powerful king. Dr. Igor is a visionary.
Did you say Dr. Evil? No. He is trying to take what’s best of Earth politics and an
Earth culture and leave some of the worst parts behind. He made himself leader, he founded
the nation give him a break. I think he is a very rich man who started his own country
made himself space king and that is definitely the simplest narrative. Well it’s a wrong
narrative but you don’t need to be jealous of his wealth. How did he make his money?
I’m not here to talk to you as his accountant or his- It does just seem relevant how he
made his money. Look it up. I did, and this peace loving space king made his money building
ballistic missiles for Vladimir Putin. Dr. Igor is part of the billionaire’s club,
who think that the problems of the earth are literally beneath them. Just like Jeff Bezos
and this cave expert.
I’ve got a crazy idea. What if space billionaires spend their money on earth problems? First
of all, Doctor… is contributing to preservation of culture.. How do I put it? What's the right
way of putting it in english. Waltonga. No not Waltonga he built some churches, so his
position is only work for now on things which I’m sure consisted with my lifetime. Wow.
He’s in his 50’s. 50’s? And he’s wasting no time getting started. Asgardia one was
launched as a collective data satellite for Asgaridans, to give any Asgardian a little
stake in space. Citizens were invited to put some data onto that satelite. It’s poetry,
it’s words, it’s personal data, it’s photographs. And we launched it. It's half
a terabyte of data. So it's an Ipod? Well its orbiting the earth, so Asgardia got space
territory. And apparently that Ipod is now a country.
There’s no law that defines whether you're a nation or not, it's a judgement call, we
judge ourselves to be a nation. And I’m sure it’ll get recognition, so you’re
not worried you're putting all your eggs in one loophole? What's the loophole? That you
can be a hard drive space. Because when they wrote the rule book they probably wouldn’t
consider someone to say were gonna call a satellite a country. I’ve got some news
for you, we’ve got more citizens than some countries. So it would just be a bit silly
if the united nations said that were still not a nation. So I went to find out from the
UN’s director of outer space affairs. In theory is it possible for someone to launch
an object into space and claim that it's a country. This never happened, but ok. Is that
because it is a joke? Yep. Ok. Ok. So the UN might not be on board, but these people
are coming together from far and wide to unite all of humanity. Almost. It’s a cross section
of the human race. What ratio of male to female? It's about 85% male, 15%. It's almost completely
male? It's not almost completely male. Do you think 30,000 aren't very many women? It's
a tiny fraction of the overall population. 30,000 women are a lot of women. How many
men then? Wait a minute… It would probably be about 180,000. But perhaps just men find
space flight and that sorta stuff more interesting. You’re kinda missing the point here. And
women, Men and women. I saw you sneak that in, that's sneaky. You’re not being sexist
about this are you? No that’s your job, but maybe Asgardia’s top woman has a better
answer. To people who come to me and say ‘do something’ a person in top management to
bring in more women, my answer is, you go out and do something to bring more women.
Ask your girlfriend, ask your sister, ask your mother. As a woman, what would attract
you? You men tell me how to interest women you know, bring them to Asgardia. So many
two for one drinks? If only someone here on earth was supporting space programs for women.
This project is called Space for Women. It is mainly devoted for STEM education, in particular
for women and in particular for women in developing countries. We help them then in their career
path. What we are really missing right now is money. So if someone had like a billion
dollars to spare, your program sounds like a good use for it. I would love that, before
we are able to live in longer periods in space, we need to be sure we can protect our own
planet. For the time being it is the only home we have. Amy’s log start date 96082,
the Asgardian are a hopeful species that may struggle to reproduce. Their intent on solving
the problems of their origin planet, yet there's something about this place. A place for hope,
a place for dance, a place sorta in space. Goodbye from this planet, Lena and I have
some handmade links to get on with. And we’re looking for women to join us.