Thank you Jacob! I believe that one possibility to acelerate Asgardia develpment could be by creating ways to attract investment or companies. Of course, another challenge, but no so far like, the biological and technical that we need to solve. I think that this brain network of qualified people in many areas could have the potential to solve anything.

Hello Abigail, Thank you for your reaction! I am glad that my story was an inspiration. It helps a lot when you are an optimistic and positive person (like myself) and when you have a mindset of "never give up, there are always alternatives". At the same time, one also does need a bit of luck, every now and then. I had the luck that I already had a good job and a large international network in IT and health, when I had to lie down due to problem with my back. I have been lying down for 1.5 years, trying all kind of medical alternatives and eventually had to go for supporting tools like a wheelchair. It was not trivial to find good stuff - I first tried a wheelchair from Sweden but my current one is from Switzerland. My house by now has quite a few smart 'tricks' and my car is adapted to the level of almost science fiction. It cost me an enormous personal effort and lots of money, because the government, the health insurance, my employer, everybody said "consider your lying down as an early retirement and enjoy". Nobody helped, also not financially. But my head still works and I still remained very enthusiastic and "bouncing" in my mind. So I simply did everything myself - nobody tells me to lie down and give up...! Swimming is great, since it removes the gravity and after some 15-30 minutes the pain disappears. Great. Unfortunately I haven't been swimming for a while, because of COVID-19. I also have diabetes and other things, so the risk for my health is simply too large. In my electric wheelchair and in my car I'm sitting/lying quite far backwards, which removes most of the gravity on my spine. I'm not lying completely flat, so at the end of the day, around 21:00, the pain becomes quite serious and my legs stop working. To go to sleep I use cannabis oil, here in the Netherlands it is available in such a form that it is not addictive. Its effects disappear around 06:00, so when I get up and start working, there's no leftover effect whatsoever. I can of course help you with tips and tricks for quite a few situations and challenges in daily life (Jacob (at) Jacobs (dot) Space). I'm using my wheelchair and car since 2017 and I've learned quite a few things since then. I studied astronomy and computer science and I've been working in IT for some 30 years now. With this knowledge and experience I have serious plans of emigrating to Space some 15 years from now. Being weightless in Space will remove my problems with gravity and it's likely that some 15 years from now the problems with my back have worsened considerably, so that I really have to do something drastic by then. I have presented my ideas on an architecture for a space colony and my plan to emigrate during the Asgardia congress in 2019, see www.MADmelange.Space/Asgardia . I'm currently working with the management of the organization were I work, www.CGI.com/Space, to convince Musk, Bezos, Branson and the like that they need CGI to realize their Space ambitions. You are already living very close to where spaceships are launched, so as soon as I'm making progress with my personal "crusade", I think it should be possible to take you (and quite a few others) with me to Space :-) . Or at least help you with your back problems and issues with gravity. Because even if I don't succeed in actually emigrating to Space, there certainly will be substantial spin-offs of the activities of myself, CGI and of course Asgardia, and I'm convinced that a few of those spin-offs will be beneficial to you too.

I am 'gravitationally challenged' in the sense that I'm in a reclining electrical wheelchair. That’s due to serious issues with my back – gravity squeezes my spine, which is caused by a twisted, worn backbone. See http://Jacobs.space/liggend for the story in pictures. During our Space Science and Investment Congress, I gave a presentation on a 'Sustainable Space Colony Swarm Architecture". In that I mentioned my need to emigrate to space in some 15 years from now. The presentation, the accompanying poster and the story on my need to emigrate to space, can be found on www.MADmelange.space/Asgardia .