A new nation must be open to the hearts and vision of its citizens, making sure that the society and structure that develops is open to ideas, to criticism and to taking responsibility for actions. Let’s examine these points:

1. Open to ideas. Creativity thrives in an open and synergistic society. It allows for problem solving and development of programs that are supported by the populace, not justselect individuals.

2. Open to criticism. As a leader, one must be open to criticism from those they serve. It is the basic foundation of leadership in an open society. Acting to institutionalize and execute the will of the people is the basis for a truly participatory system.

3. Taking responsibility. A leader must also be ready to accept responsibility for actions. Establishing this trust allows to build networks of trust and action which are crucial for the growth of a society.

It is on these basic constructs that I build my platform. As a candidate, I am committed to the open exchange of ideas, for creative solutions to benefit all citizens. I accept the criticism others may have of my views and positions and stand ready to engage in discourse on the issues with the goal of achieving solutions that meet the needs of society. Finally, I have founded my life on taking responsibility for actions that I control and will continue to do so

INTRODUCTION

I've been with Asgardia for nearly an entire year. I started first with seeing the introduction on social media. Now, this advertisement could NOT have come at a better time you see; it was right before the 2016 election in the United States, and I'd reached my limit with faith in humanity. Our choices were a business guru or a known criminal, and neither I felt had what our country needed to overcome the issues we were facing.

THE FIRST MONTH

I was excited about Asgardia; decidedly, I wanted to contribute. I HAD to make a difference. I was tired of feeling helpless among the chaos of cultural unrest that plagues my country still; and a nation devoted wholly to science and space had my destiny written all over it.

So first I emailed citizens@asgardia.space in an effort to find a fit; of course, with hundreds of thousands of emails streaming in, mine was not the first to get looked at. I was convinced however, that there was something I was good at - and that was inspiring people. So I started Voices of Asgardia.

THE RADIO STATION AND WONDERFUL PEOPLE

Finding help wasn't difficult - there were many people as inspired to be part of it as I was - and soon I picked up my two most trusted compatriots, who have been with me since working at the radio station. Ideas flowed like water, and overall the entire community actively and positively debated various topics.

Things were going really good, until elitists started moving in.

THE ELITES

I can at this point only speak from my experience.

The first elitist I ran into was actually a contact from a professional associate of mine; he offered to mentor me and take me under his wing. Prior to this experience, I had zero knowledge of business; but under his guidance and the guidance of other professionals, I was taught how a business works, set up the plan for it, and submitted it to Asgardia NGO for funding. We spent many hours and countless business meetings going over various portions of the 100 year plan; the idea was to set up a floating space them park called "Asgardia" in an old supertanker. We could run it the same way as Disney runs their theme park, and it would generate revenue for Asgardia.

The plan was delayed, until Asgardia could build an approved business schematic; in the meantime, I have and continue to pay for VOA out of my own pocket.

This "delay" in business dealings struck a sour nerve with my associate, mentioned before. He didn't seem happy that the hours worth of work we'd put into a couple of different business plans could be so easily shelved, and he began to push harder on his ideas; this resulted however in a stern "no" from Asgardia. Clearly upset at the waste of time, he swore off Asgardia and marched out to do his own thing. To my knowledge, he is still working diligently on his dreams.

Another elitist who popped up was a man named Scott Trombley. Scott Trombley was a liquor enforcement officer from the United States. He began a side project, which he named Project Jericho to raise money for the purchase of an island off the coast of Chile, which would be used as a terrestrial land base for Asgardia.

Again, Asgardia said no. Infuriated (or, whatever his reaction was) Trombley left Asgardia, slammed down a trademark on Asgardia and various other related things in the United States, and effectively tried to hijack the project out from under Dr. Ashurbeyli. With the quick response of the volunteer network (of which I was a part of at the time), we shut down his marauding on the facebook pages. So he started his own facebook pages (most are marked with a parenthesis, like Asgardia General (official)). AGH, or Asgardia Global Holdings was the company started to compete with Asgardia NGO (which did not become an NGO for another few months).

Then there was the guy who wanted to start Asgardia TV. Now I'll be honest, I have no idea who the guy was or what his professional background actually was; but he claimed to have the experience and know-how to start an actual TV station. As the volunteer communications coordinator at that time, I was asked to help him in setting everything up - only, he didn't want anything to do with me. Through a private message, he told me to "stick your nose back in your radio where it belongs."

I'm not a hard guy to get along with - but as the liaison for his program, that probably wasn't the best thing to say to me. Either way, I washed my hands of it and told Asgardia they'd have to work directly with him. To my knowledge, Asgardia TV went dark nearly six months ago and nothing has developed since. When I tried to follow up with the guy, he told me he was "waiting for Asgardia to fund it" whereas Asgardia told me they were waiting for his revisions to a business plan.

Lesson learned here: Don't shit where you sleep.

THE AGE OF TROLLS

After the "elites" figured out that they weren't going to get rich off Asgardia, many of them fled. By fled, I mean they probably put their attention back in to what they considered to be "worthy" causes.

I still remember when the trolls started in; first, there was a guy who would literally shit his pants every time he was censored on Facebook or the forums. MetaBorg, I think was his handle. Anyways, this guy had an entitlement complex like you wouldn't believe. He tried to tell us that he was a masterful hacker and even went so far as to threaten Asgardia when they banned him for his inappropriate commentary. Whether or not any of his "hacking" attempts were successful or not remains unknown.

You know, the forum rules are pretty simple. Don't be an asshole, and you won't get the shaft.

Then - haha - I can't remember the guy, but it started innocently enough with posts about magnetism. The poster did not have a solid understanding of magnetism, and somehow came across this cultist physicist's skewed point of view about what magnetism is - and when we tried to correct him, he screamed "I'm a victim of online bullying" and didn't understand why we couldn't just agree to disagree.

When you're wrong, you're just wrong. You can't compromise the truth for the sake of feelings.

There were many others after that - athiests, for one rings a bell. I was in charge of moderating the first religion forum - that lasted a week. I just don't have patience for abrasive personalities looking for a fight, and the religion forum was an excellent place to level your weapon and start shooting.

Eventually I gave up forum moderation altogether - we turned it over to people who were trained to do it properly, and that took a load off my shoulders.

THE HONG KONG PRESS CONFERENCE

From February to June of year 1, Asgardia was mostly quiet - which raised the uneasiness of the community. I don't know if it was boredom or just a golden opportunity for trolls - but Pseudoscience posts started popping up everywhere. Between that and Metaphysics I shyed my way out of the forums - and really, haven't been back since.

People kept asking us - what's next for Asgardia? As a volunteer for Civic Asgardia under the sanctioned leadership of Mrs. Rebekah Berg, and the community's communication coordinator, I spent much of my time trying to set up the ANN - the Asgardia News Network. Having no journalism background proved to be the biggest challenge - and about the time we were ready to put a department together, I moved across country to a place with no internet. This ended up being the end of my ability to aid Civic Asgardia, and thus after a few months of being unable to attend meetings, resigned my position to be an average citizen.

I did end up being able to view the Hong Kong press conference live though - and what it showed me was the absolute solidification that Dr. Ashurbeyli had plans already for our kingdom, and intended to see them through to the end before he turned it over to others for their leadership. Personally, I think a 5 year term limit isn't enough for the leader of Asgardia, but - it's his plan.

THE CONSTITUTION FIASCO

Though I wasn't directly involved with it, I know there were multiple panels who worked very hard to produce a number of different approaches to the constitution - all of which were rejected, to my knowledge. The constitution, once it became available, raised a few eyebrows about the constitutional monarchy.

But I wasn't ready to give up on it yet. Many of my American colleagues had already written Asgardia off as a pipe dream, but I just couldn't let it go. Why? Because I felt I saw what others failed to see - and that is, this is the most non-traditional approach to creating a country ever devised - and what the world needs now is something different.

I voted in favor the constitution - not because I agreed with it, but because I knew it was the next necessary step to reaching our goal.

What happened next flabbergasted me and shook my faith in Asgardia. Stories started coming up about changes to the constitution - in the middle of the voting period! I didn't believe it at first, until I started researching them - and then, yes, indeed changes had been made - specifically to articles 42 and 43 of the constitution.

Now realistically, the wording was changed to facilitate the passing of the constitution, and while I don't agree it was a good thing I do agree that it did less harm than most attribute to it. I understand the reasons behind the changes - they needed that constitution to pass to move on to the next step - and it can always be changed or amended later.

BEYOND

Throughout the months of August, September and all the way to the Founding Day - I watched the flag, symbol, motto, and other things get chosen as they were promised to us from Day 1. Realistically, most of the promises that were made to us as citizens have been accomplished - but one thing most people DON'T really recognize is the amount of change that has occurred with the original vision.

In November-December last year, we were telling people that we were NOT going to space - that Asgardia was meant to exist on Earth - only for Mrs. De Winne to confirm to me later that they did eventually plan to reach for the stars and build a space-bound community. The original vision has changed dramatically, dropping dead-ends and picking up new ideas - but the mission remains the same. We need to protect Earth from  space - and there are many, many, many things out there that could wipe our entire planet out of existence.

CHANGE IS GOOD - EMBRACE IT

Over the course of the next year, more changes will happen - but as a progressive society I urge you to relax your  expectations and enjoy the ride. We're doing something that's never been done before - and if we do it right, we could be the first in a string of virtual communities fighting for independence from overbearing ideologies that our own countries impose on us (and yes, that includes the "freest nation on the Earth", the United States). I'm done being told what I should wear, what I should expect, and that my ideas are wrong, misplaced or a waste of time.

The best part of Asgardia is it LITERALLY is the new America - a place where you can bring your ideas, develop them, meet people who can help you reach your goals, and in turn you can help them  reach theirs. For those who've watched their ideas fall by the wayside, you gave up too early, or your ideas didn't align with our mission - but you took the time to present them and I honor you for that.

Engage your communities, start the ideas flowing - and once the Solar is up and running, put your plans into motion. Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast, as we used to say. Everything in Asgardia can flow smoothly - but it can't be rushed or it won't be made properly.

You've seen the questions. The ones about the island, or the passports, or the space station - many of these, innocently come from newer Asgardians who haven't been here long or are unfamiliar with the history of the last year.

I'll run you through a quick chronicle.

I started in Asgardia a week and a half after the initial announcement. I was so excited to read about it, that I wanted to be involved. So I started a radio station - and got (and still have) an official sanction for it.

Shortly thereafter I volunteered to help the volunteer pool which later became Civic Asgardia. I watched the rise and fall of a multitude of projects - the Human Codex, Trombley's Island, Asgardia TV - and one thing above all else played a very important part in their demise. This detail was overlooked by the project's creators, and continues to be overlooked - so allow me to spell it out.

RELEVANCE TO ASGARDIA
These words make some Social Media goers cringe. Why? Because they've seen them before - psuedoscience posts, religious discussions, politics - blocked comments and raised tempers later, nobody seems to understand what the concept of Relevance is. It's pretty simple guys - NGO Asgardia has a "master plan" that Dr. Ashurbeyli and his staff had laid out long before we got to this point. They're trying to stay on that path.

But... what about transparency? The voice of the people? Democracy?

This isn't a democracy. It wasn't meant to be. At least, not yet. It has the potential to GROW into a democracy, but we're not there yet.

GROWTH TAKES TIME

Nobody plants a tomato plant expecting it to bear fruit the very next day. NO, it takes a germination time, then curation - growth, care, and several weeks to months later - a few tomatoes to put on a sandwich (or if you're like me, salt and cottage cheese).

Asgardia is in a growth period - we've overcome the first part of Dr. Ashurbeyli's plan - the adoption of the constitution. "Why wasn't I allowed to vote no?" Because it's not YOUR vision. It's NGO's vision. You're along for the ride.

YOU ARE A CITIZEN OF A FANTASY COUNTRY RIGHT NOW

Asgardia has received no official recognition, and little press coverage. In layman's terms, it's not real. NOT YET. It will be, but it's not real YET. What is real is our common desire to make it a reality - and to do so, you need to let the professionals the space they need to make it happen (yes, pun intended).

So sit back, donate, contribute what you can - and be patient. The future is being made, and you WILL be a part of it. But sitting on your hands waiting for a passport isn't making your tomatoes grow any faster.

During a September Q&A session online , Lena De Winne, the CEO and Vice-President of NGO Asgardia, and the Deputy Head of Administration of Asgardia, addressed a number of questions posted by Asgardians online. She also discussed recent developments.

Mechanisms for Change

Now that the approved Constitution has created the framework for the Asgardian society to operate in, there are mechanisms in place for areas that can be improved.

De Winne said: “That is why the Constitution defines the rule by which it is possible to submit petitions. Those petitions can be submitted by any Asgardian. Petitions are published on the website, and they stay there for sixty days. They need to collect a number of votes and they need to be addressed properly. Then, if they are initiated and handled correctly, they will arrive with the respective addressee and recipient and the government, and they will have to be processed.”

She continued: “For example, if you have any specific desire to change any article or chapter of the Constitution, please write a petition. Talk to your countrymen Asgardians. Collect the signatures. Make sure that the petition is fully ready, and it will be submitted to the respective branch of the government, and then, if it all goes through correctly, this will be the basis to call a referendum. The referendum will be the basis for changing the Constitution like in any democracy. It's exactly the democratic procedure that is defined in the Constitution.”

Privacy Protection

De Winne reminded Asgardians to keep “your number in the certificate of Asgardia safe. This is your unique number that in the future will allow you to use all the government and national services.”

Status of UN Recognition

When asked about UN recognition, De Winne said that “ it's not so black and white.”

“The paperwork has been prepared and at the same time, contexts are being initiated with other countries on Earth. There is no such thing as requirements to be met to be appointed a state…no set of formal criteria. We are preparing an extended set of documents for the United Nations to start working with them, but it's not like ‘please accept me to become a member’ -- it doesn't work like this. The work is ongoing.”

You asked, Asgardia answered. For more answers to questions you may have, please see our Frequently Asked Questions .

During a September Q&A session online , Lena De Winne, the CEO and Vice-President of NGO Asgardia, and the Deputy Head of Administration of Asgardia, addressed a number of questions posted by Asgardians online. She also discussed recent developments.

Constitution Accepted

“ As you all know, we have completed the cycle of voting, and a number of decrees by Dr. Ashurbeyli have been published,” she said. “The Constitution has been accepted by 72.5% of the votes. Congratulations to all of you and all of us for such a big success. We are Asgardian!”

Citizenship, IDs & Passports
De Winne explained that “those people who have voted in support of the Constitution have the preferential right to be considered Asgardian citizens. Will still need to do quite a bit of work in order to prepare ID cards and passports.”

“Those of you who have voted in support of the Constitution before the announcement by Dr. Ashurbeyli that the voting is closed are entitled to receive ID cards and passports as soon as we are ready to distribute them,” she said, adding that it will take a few months to prepare ID cards and passports.

Picking Up ID Cards in Person

De Winne assured viewers that a lot of thought will go into where ID cards will have to be picked up. She said that once in a lifetime, a person will have to present themselves, with documents proving their identity, in order to receive Asgardian documents.

“ There will be one embassy per continent and then there will be consulates, which will be spread out. Maybe there will be temporary locations. We will see how everybody does it for the citizens around the world and we will do our best to make it as convenient as possible.”

She added that for those who are unable to travel, “we will look at situations on a case by case basis.”

De Winne suggested that embassies will likely begin to be established sometime next year, as “ embassies fall under the responsibility of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is one of twelve ministries that is to be available in the government structure once it is established. It will be one of the first tasks of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”

What’s Next?

De Winne noted that now that the Constitution has been approved, it sets the ground law of the nation. “Now, according to the Constitution, there will be a Parliament formed. It will take six months to form the Parliament, and it’s the role of the Parliament to develop the laws. As is defined in the Constitution, a number of subjects will be specified once the laws are elaborated by the Parliament and passed and accepted.”

You asked, Asgardia answered. For more answers to questions you may have, please see our Frequently Asked Questions .

During a September Q&A session online , Lena De Winne, the CEO and Vice-President of NGO Asgardia, and the Deputy Head of Administration of Asgardia, addressed a number of questions posted by Asgardians online. In particular, she spoke about startups in Asgardia, and how Asgardians can begin to convert their ideas into businesses.

“ Asgardia in general, as it has been conceived, is a country of startups, a country of new opportunities,” she said. “Quite soon, the Asgardia.com website will become much more populated with information, and one of the areas of expansion will provide an opportunity to make proposals for startups.”

In this, Asgardia is collaborating with Seraphim Venture Capital, a major venture capital organization in Europe and the only one that is space-related. “Asgardia is setting up an approach by which it will co-fund startups. Together with Seraphim, and also on its own, Asgardia is prepared to invest and co-invest and to support the development of startups and their growth within the jurisdiction of Asgardia.”

As for the areas of focus, De Winne said that “those can be space-related projects, but they can also be anything scientific and technological. It can be software, it can be electronic boards, it can be avionics, it can be all sorts of interesting promising start-ups that can be useful for the community and can potentially carry technological and engineering benefits.”

If you have an idea and are willing to see it through, she said, “the business opportunity is there.” She said that a community of experts will conduct an independent review and advise Asgardia on investing into the growth of particular startups.

Where does one begin? “You’re welcome to establish business plans,” De Winne said. “If you have a startup idea and you have a business plan to support this idea, by all means, please do make this proposal. Write it down. Send us the proposal…show a business plan and the revenue streams and the request for investment and how it is meant to grow as a business. We're open to proposals.”

You asked, Asgardia answered. For more answers to questions you may have, please see our Frequently Asked Questions .

During a September Q&A session online , Lena De Winne, the CEO and Vice-President of NGO Asgardia, and the Deputy Head of Administration of Asgardia, addressed a number of questions posted by Asgardians online. Currently, only 15% of registered Asgardians are women. Asgardians have asked: are there programs or campaigns to promote Asgardia to encourage more women to join?

“We are open to everybody,” De Winne stated. “We do not have any prejudice on gender orientation, race, Earthly religion. The whole point of Asgardia is that it's a totally open community and society for people who want to join.”

To attract more women to Asgardia, she asked those who are already a part of Asgardia to “invite your partners, invite your girlfriends, invite your wives, invite your female friends from the community where you are involved on Earth.”

De Winne mentioned that just because currently there are more registered male Asgardians, it should in no way be assumed that Asgardia is male-centric. “Actually, there are many women in the core team where I work. I am in top management, and there are two women on my team who work with me directly.”

She urged Asgardians to talk to their friends: “What it is that women want, please help us find out. We might find out something we don't know yet.” De Winne noted that Asgardia is open to placing resources and infrastructure toward the implementation of initiatives that will attract more women. She also said, “If you as an Asgardian feel that you want to make sure that more women are invited, by all means, please initiate this within the community.”

You asked, Asgardia answered. For more answers to questions you may have, please see our Frequently Asked Questions .

During a recent Q&A session online , Lena De Winne, the CEO and Vice-President of NGO Asgardia, addressed the question of ID cards and passports.

“Once the process of Constitution voting is over, it will be one of the next steps of the Administration, to look into the ID cards, and eventually passports,” she commented.

She warned that the process will take some time: “It will not be extremely fast. It will be done very properly, very meticulously to make sure that what is done works and it works universally, and it’s totally secure.”

Who can receive and ID card and a passport, and why is does it take a while? De Winne explained: “It will be only possible to receive ID card, and eventually a passport, to those who have voted for the Constitution and have identified themselves as real people. This is one of the reasons why we are still running the voting. Our IT team is verifying that those who voted are actually real people older than 18 and have voted only once. That's why those votes that are not valid are deleted. Once this is all done and checked and verified and the results are published, those who have voted and been recognized are entitled to request ID card and eventually a passport. But they will have to present themselves and identify themselves with the existing documents. It will be a lengthy process, but it will be a totally transparent and valid process.”

Documents will have to be picked up in person, she said. Asgardia plans to have embassies on every continent, because “it's philosophically representative of what Asgardia stands for, because from space you do not see the borders. The borders are drawn on the maps, the borders are in our minds. Asgardia, as the first in world history space nation, is standing up for the unified humanity through space and its vision from space,” De Winne said.

She acknowledged that for logistical purposes, “we will have to see closer to the date which other locations might require representation or consulates.”

De Winne said that passports will come later, and ID cars are more important, as they “will be integrated with the National Identification, like banking system and social security system. This will be a process which will be happening in parallel with the development of the Solar as the currency.”

She also said that passports (especially used as travel documents) are “absolutely amongst our goals. That will happen.” But for now, she said, ID cards will happen sooner – “they have more practical purposes.”

You asked, Asgardia answered. For more answers to questions you may have, please see our Frequently Asked Questions .

On 19 August 2017, Lena De Winne, the CEO and Vice-President of NGO Asgardia held another Q&A session online . The launch of Asgardia-1, currently pushed back to November, was discussed.

“ Currently, NASA is publishing the date of the 10th of November for the 088 Cygnus vehicle where ASGARDIA-1 satellite is one of the cargo. This depends on NASA. Launch dates often shift. There are various reasons for that. Space business is still a tricky one. Every space flight is a test flight. Nothing is yet routine. In every flight, anything that is doubtful would be a reason for the delay. That’s how the business is run,” De Winne commented.

She reassured Asgardians that the “Asgardia-1 satellite, as you have seen, is ready. It's staying in the integration facility of Nanoracks, who are our partners in preparing the satellite. The moment NASA tells them that they're ready for integrating cargo into the Cygnus vehicle, Nanoracks will just go step-by-step. They were ready to do it earlier. That’s why earlier we had a countdown clock on the website saying how much time was left until you could have uploaded your files. This was [based on] date announced by NASA of the launch on the 12th of September. With that schedule, the 23rd of July was the last day we could have possibly had any files from you to transfer to the hard disk that would be integrated into the satellite. The moment we were told that there will be a delay, we are immediately telling you that you are welcome to upload your files as long as room is available.”

She concluded: “The current published launch date is 12th of November. If by chance it happens that the launch is shifting forward rather than backward, we are ready. The moment NASA tells Nanoracks to submit hardware for integration it will be done immediately because we are perfectly on the good track.”

De Winne reminded Asgardians that “the way to fly virtually to space is to upload your data via the www.Asgardia.space website, so that it can be still transferred to the satellite. The satellite is going to fly on the Cygnus vehicle that will launch to the International Space Station. It will then, after a couple of months, detach, fly further up a little, and then deploy several satellites, including Asgardia-1, into outer space. That's when the free flight is going to start and that's when the solar arrays will open. So we all are looking forward for this launch to happen.”

You asked, Asgardia answered. For more answers to questions you may have, please see our Frequently Asked Questions .

On 19 August 2017, Lena De Winne, the CEO and Vice-President of NGO Asgardia held another Q&A session online . Viewers sent in questions about the logistical structure of Asgardia and De Winne’s role. De Winne explained all in detail.

When asked about her role as Asgardia’s spokesperson, De Winne answered that she’s an employee of Dr. Ashurbeyli. “ I have been working for the Aerospace International Research Center since it was formed. Predominantly I was working on ROOM , [the Space Journal], which started in the summer of 2014. I was, and I still am, Director at Room, and when Dr. Ashurbeyli decided to put Asgardia to public view, he has asked number of people who already worked for him to transfer part of their time to Asgardia. I was among those people Dr. Ashurbeyli ask to work for Asgardia.”

De Winne is the CEO and VP of NGO Asgardia, and a few people had questions about what NGO Asgardia is. De Winne explained: “This is a legal structure. Originally, Dr. Ashurbeyli formed the Aerospace International Research Center in Vienna, and that was the legal entity that organized all the activities in Europe including ROOM: the Space Journal. And then, when Dr. Ashurbeyli decided that it’s time to go public with his idea of Asgardia, on which he has been working for many years.”

“We originally ran it legally under the Aerospace International Research Center,” she continued. “But as Asgardia has been growing -- in October it will be one year -- and as many new activities are picking up, it’s necessary to set up legal structure that will be fully independent and fully supportive of the prospect Asgardian activities. So there are two legal structures, Asgardia NGO and Asgardia AG.”

“Asgardia NGO is the prototype of the future state,” she explained. “Indeed, it does sound a little bit peculiar because an NGO is a non-governmental organization. That legal structure is the easiest to transform into the governmental structure, once the whole procedure is implemented, once the Parliament is elected and the government is appointed.”

As for Asgardia AG, De Winne noted that it “is a legal entity that allows commercial activities. At the moment we have two websites, www.asgardia.space and www. asgardia.com . So in a way, asgardia.space is a website of Asgardia NGO and future state of Asgardia, and asgardia.com is a website of Asgardia AG, of the commercial entity, which would allow for organizing the startups and future activities.”

You asked, Asgardia answered. For more answers to questions you may have, please see our Frequently Asked Questions .

On 19 August 2017, Lena De Winne, the CEO and Vice-President of NGO Asgardia held another Q&A session online . Among other things, De Winne spoke about English as the operational language of Asgardia.

She agreed that there are concerns about the use of English only as the means of communication, but also explained that “ official language and operational language are different things, of course. We have to start somewhere... It’s our reality and we live in it.”

However, she reminded viewers that Asgardia is already working in 12 languages: “In terms of official documentation, as you have seen, the Constitution was published in 12 languages. These are the 12 most spoken languages in Asgardia. We will be working on publishing and presenting all [official] materials in the 12 most spoken languages of Asgardia.”

She thanked the volunteers who have helped with translations: “All I can say is to thank you to all the volunteers who make an effort to take forward everything we publish and make transcripts of what I say, to put translations forward, to collect feedback from the respective groups and to generate responses and feedback to us in the administration.” De Winne added that for now, Google Translate does a decent job for translating pages in Google Chrome, and suggested people use it for the time being.

As for the creating of an independent language for Asgardia, she said it’s not impossible. “It's not action number one on our to-do list, but it's certainly a natural thing to consider. Let’s say we are open to this. There hasn't yet been a lot of work done to make this happen, but this thinking is on-going, it's certainly possible,” she said.

You asked, Asgardia answered. For more answers to questions you may have, please see our Frequently Asked Questions .

On 19 August 2017, Lena De Winne, the CEO and Vice-President of NGO Asgardia held another Q&A session online . One of the more pressing topics was about what’s happening in leadership elections.

“First of all, everybody who has voted in support of the Constitution is entitled to present him or herself as a leader,” explained De Winne. “Leaders come, as you can see on asgardia.space, in four categories. Category one is a leader who represents 10 people. This is a very local representation. Then there is a leader for 100 people, for 1,000 people, for 10,000 people. [Of those,] you can vote for anybody worldwide. But as a voter you can vote only once.”

What if you voted and then changed your mind? “If somebody else came along and presented themselves and you changed your mind, you can re-vote (until the voting has finished). But then the person you voted for originally loses your vote. So, you need to be very careful about your decisions because you’re only entitled to one vote for each level, which are 10, 100, 1,000 and 10,000 people, accordingly,” De Winne explained.

De Winne reminded viewers that you can only position yourself as a leader for one level. She said, “at the moment, there is a moderation process and those who do not meet those requirements get notifications, but then eventually if one keeps not meeting the requirements, their candidacy will be removed.”

As for what makes a candidate legitimate, she said that it’s utterly important to run your campaign under your real name and a photo of your face. You also must be at least 18 years of age.

“And, of course, the very important thing is the platform,” she said. De Winne urged leaders to “have some kind of program. What are you standing for? What do you want to lead the community towards? We create the infrastructure and the system that supports candidates for leadership to express themselves, but it’s up to the candidates to be vocal about what they stand for.”

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Voices of Asgardia, Asgardia's premiere radio station is getting a makeover.

For the first time in months, www.voicesofasgardia.com is being revived thanks in part to efforts by VOA's Staff who have been working quietly behind the scenes while station founder Ryan Zohar was on furlough following a cross-country household move to Arkansas, United States.

Things to expect with the makeover:
>> New website design and layout. Graphics Coordinator Eric Viana, who is also the acting webmaster, is currently working with an Asgardian volunteer on migrating the site and radio station to a private server in Germany. Eric will be implementing a new site design in the near future, geared towards suggestions from  fans and contributors.
>>News updates. Contributors Marco Nowak and Lukas Alexander Jones will be keeping the news up to date, starting with weekly updates.

>>New Programming. Founder Ryan Zohar is currently planning a weekly talkshow, adding to the lineup which already includes a weekly show from  Asgardian musician Ejay Ivan Lac. Lukas Jones is also planning an electronic music show, and more DJs are petitioning for positions.

>>Contributions from  NGO and Civic Asgardia. Community Lead Rebekah Berg will be contributing to VOA through updates made available on Asgardia.Space, and you can expect to hear from  NGO CEO Lena De Winne in the near future.

Stay tuned to www.voicesofasgardia.com for more updates.