Hello Asgardias,

There was a post made today in our Facebook group about using mobile apps for Asgardian internal communications.

During the comments many asked very important questions on inbuilt security and the ability to work collaboratively.

As many of us know most apps and programs already created with these more advanced feature cost to use.

I'm just wondering what do we think on the subject:

1) should we be paying to use an application that's already been created with these features already built and tested?

2) should we pay a development team to create an Asgardia exclusive application with these features?

3) do members with the skill set to develop these kind of applications want to donate time into there creation?

Did you know, that the earliest idea for a " space station " was from an article published in 1868.
Titles " The Brick Moon " the article was written by Edward Everett Hale as a fictional piece and was published in " the Atlantic Monthly ".
Hale envisaged a 200 foot diameter hollow brick sphere  that was launched into space and used as a navigational aid, becoming a fixed point in the sky above the prime meridian that sailors could use to calculate longitude.

Amazingly Hale went through the effort of calculating that the brick sphere would require 12 million bricks to complete and cost $250 000 US dollars, an equivalent of approximately $4.1 million dollars today.

So living in space has been a long term dream for mankind - Will Asgardia finally accomplish this??



Image Credits: The Atlantic Monthly, 1896

What is the Wilkes Land Mass Anomaly?

In 1962 gravitational and seismic features on the Wilkes Ice sheet in Antarctica recorded by the U.S Victoria Land Traverse (1959-60), led Richard A. Schmidt  (Geophysical and Polar Research Center, University of Wisconsin) to postulate that there must be a meteorite crater beneath the ice.

The hypothesis was later published in detail by J. Weihaupt in 1976, which stated as evidence the large gravitational anomaly and land topography below the ice sheet.
The evidence available at the time led Weihaupt to surmised that the subglacial crater was 243 km in diameter with a minimum depth of 848 meters.

The original data has now been supplemented by data from airborne radio sound survey, airborne gravity survey, airborne magnetic survey and satellite remote sensing and in 2006

NASA’s GRACE satellite was able to identify a 300 km diameter “mass concentration” (mascon) within the center of a “ring like structure”.

The new data from GRACE allowed a team led by Ralph von Frese and Laramie Potts of Ohio State University to re-asses the dimensions of the proposed impact crater to between 480 and 510 km.

However due to the location being buried beneath many meters of ice,  direct samples have not yet been taken to “prove” this is indeed an impact crater, and it has also been suggested that this might also be evidence of; a volcanic structure; an igneous intrusion; an ancient igneous diapir; a subglacial sedimentary basin; a glacially eroded subglacial valley; or a tectonic feature, however there is strong evidence that it is indeed an impact crater.

When was the Anomaly created?

Due to the fact that a typical mascon, on Earth, will dissipate over time it has been calculated that the structure must be less that 500 million years old.  There is also evidence that the structure has been interrupted by a rift valley, created some 100 million years ago as Australia separated from the the super continent “Gondwana”.

Researchers therefore give give the impact structure an estimated creation time of between 500 and 100 million years ago.

Impact event extinctions?

During the same time frame of this potential impact on the other side of the planet (at the time) a massive volcanic event was creating what is now known as the “Siberian Traps”.   These are a huge region of volcanic rock that was created by a massive eruption event that is thought to be the largest of its kind in the last 500 million years.  It is now hypothesised that the two events may be linked.

That the shockwaves caused by the impact in Antarctica “literally”  provided additional energy to the Earth's mantel to create a chain reaction of seismic events in the lithosphere.  This “super” massive event continued to pour molten material from our planets mantel for close to a million years and is believed to be one of the one of the keys reasons as to why 250 million years ago 96% of all marine species and 70% of land vertebrates suffered a mass extinction. This is also the only known extinction event of insects (57% of all families and 83% of all genera) (Permian - Triassic extinction event).

It should be noted that at present this is a hypothetical link and that no ejection material has been recovered within Antarctica to physically associate the two events.

Chicxulub Crater.

Another massive impact crater, the Chicxulub Crater is now widely accepted as being the impact event that is responsible for the massive extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous period (the one that killed all the dinosaurs).  Buried underneath the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico it is known to have been formed by a large asteroid / comet about 10 to 15 km in diameter striking the Earth approximately 65 million years ago.  The crater however is tiny when compared to the Wilkes crater being 180 km in diameter and only 20 km in depth making it roughly a ¼ the dimensions of the Wilkes crater.

Comparing the ratios of impactor to impact crater size between the Wilkes Crater and the Chicxulub Crater , it would seem that the impact force could be found.  The exact formula is much more complicated and due to the lack of physical evidence no one knows the impact force of the Wilkes meteor or the size and density of the impacting object..

It can be said to have been anywhere from 3 to 5 times greater than Chicxulub event, which delivered an estimated energy equivalent of 100 teratons of TNT .

Name: Jason Rainbow

Country: Puerto Rico (United States of America)

Volunteer Position:  Social Media Coordinator

About Me:

I'm a stay at home parent of 2 young children (3 years and 3 months of age).

I currently live in Puerto Rico, although I was born in the United Kingdom and spent many years living in Spain.

I have a background in Physics although I was unable to complete my degree due to family issues at the time and ended up working in the Hospitality industry for several years for mulitple international companies, in varying positions from waiter to bartender to manager.

Q: What brought you to Asgardia?

A: I first heard of Asgardia through the "Room" website and was one of the first to sign up to be a part of the project. Like many here the concept of ensuring that the earth is "safe" from as many potentail problems as possible appealed greatly to me.

(and the chance that in the furture if not myself, my children might have a chance to live in space was a boost).

Q:What I like about Asgardia?

A:When I first joined Asgardia the promise of everyone (regardless of background, country of origin, wealth....etc) appealed to me greatly,  the human race working together finally as one race!

I was reminded of this very recently in the real world as my local community prepared to face Hurricane Irma, with neighboor helping neigbour to prepare for the worst with little to no regard for their own time.

It is this concept of all of us being able to co-work in a multinational, multi-cultural environment that I like the most.

Q:What I hope the future will bring with Asgardia?

A:Well living in space one day... obviously, but more immediate I hope that by working together as an international community we will be able to overcome many scientific and engineering issues that stand in our way to protecting our home world from the threat that exist in our solar system.

Can we just take a short moment away from the constitutional discussions to remind ourselves of what the “end game” of Asgardia is;

Protecting the our home from this….

https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/death-asteroid-may-come-unexpected-ways#interactive

This made me giggle:

Heisenberg and Schrodinger are on a road trip, when a cop pulls them over. The officer walks up and asks if they know how fast they’re going. Heisenberg replies that they do not, but know with high precision where they are. The cop thinks that’s weird, and begins to search the vehicle. He opens the trunk and asks, “did you know you’ve got a dead cat in the trunk?” Schrodinger says, “well, *now* we do.”

Hello my Asgardian Friends,

Just a quick note to remind everyone of the ongoing contests that we have to choose some important feature of our nations:

Flag , Insignia and Anthem selection voting is still ongoing but the end date is rapidly coming upon us, so make sure that you have placed your up-vote so that your favourites are included in the final selection on Unity Day.

For a little over 2500 years our species has looked up and observed “Falling stars” as they shoot across the sky every April.

The meteor shower now known as the Lyrids is current underway, lasting from April 16th to the 25th, however this year's spectacle is expected to be better than previous years.

This meteor shower takes its name as it seems to be located in the constellation of Lyra near the star Vega  (Right ascension: 18h 36m 56.33635s | Declination: +38° 47′ 01.2802″)

The Lyrids are the after effect of Comet Thatcher whose orbit takes 415 years.  This meaning it last visited Earth in 1861 (the next will be 2276).
However every year we pass through its debris trail, where little pieces burn up in our atmosphere creating this celestial spectacle.

Having begun on the 16th the shower will last until April 25th peaking just before dawn on April 22.  In a “normal” year the peak rate is approximately 10 -20 meteorites per hour,  however, in the Greece (1922), Japan (1945) and USA (1982) over a 100 meteorites per hour being recorded.

This year we are going to be lucky again if you can find a light pollution free patch of sky the waning crescent moon should make it a great show.

(For a little fun check out: https://www.meteorshowers.org/ )

How many of us will be going out and trying to see some of this natural fireworks display?

(and out of curiosity, if you do go out and have a look, how many did you see in your location…?

I think it would be nice to see if we can get a global rate difference… )

_Edit:
(this might be useful for anyone wanting to go take a look too: https://www.accuweather.com/en/world-weather )

Hello fellow Asgardians,

As many of us have noticed (and some have commented ) the new text formatting bar has been undergoing a few changes.
The IT department has been trying to adapt the features (and implementation) to see what best works for us.

So here is our opportunity to give the team some feedback and let them know what we would like to see in a text formatting bar .

Please can we keep our comments to 'suggestive' and 'constructive' in nature so that we can pass to the team and let them know what we as a community needs.

All suggestions are welcome, so please let us know what you would find useful.

Thanks in advance for all your suggestions,

Jason Rainbow
Civic.Asgardia Social Media Coordinator

Hello Everyone!

Please remember that if you want to become more actively involved in Asgardia? We're looking for volunteers to join our moderation and chapter staff!

You can find the posting in the Administrative Affairs forums:
https://asgardia.space/en/forum/forum/civic-asgardia-public-sector-145/topic/civic-asgardia-recruitment-initiative-april-3-2017-4692/?post=22454#22454

Please read the post fully and review the openings before applying.
Please note applications for this round will be ending on the 15th April.

Jason Rainbow
Civic.Asgardia Social Media Coordinator

Hello Everyone!

Please remember that if you want to become more actively involved in Asgardia? We're looking for volunteers to join our moderation and chapter staff!

You can find the posting in the Administrative Affairs forums:
https://asgardia.space/en/forum/forum/civic-asgardia-public-sector-145/topic/civic-asgardia-recruitment-initiative-april-3-2017-4692/?post=22454#22454

Please read the post fully and review the openings before applying.
Please note applications for this round will be ending on the 15th April.

Jason Rainbow
Civic.Asgardia Social Media Coordinator

Hello Everyone!

Please remember that if you want to become more actively involved in Asgardia? We're looking for volunteers to join our moderation and chapter staff!

You can find the posting in the Administrative Affairs forums:
https://asgardia.space/en/forum/forum/civic-asgardia-public-sector-145/topic/civic-asgardia-recruitment-initiative-april-3-2017-4692/?post=22454#22454

Please read the post fully and review the openings before applying.
Please note applications for this round will be ending on the 15th April.

Jason Rainbow
Civic.Asgardia Social Media Coordinator

Hello Everyone!

Please remember that if you want to become more actively involved in Asgardia? We're looking for volunteers to join our moderation and chapter staff!

You can find the posting in the Administrative Affairs forums:
https://asgardia.space/en/forum/forum/civic-asgardia-public-sector-145/topic/civic-asgardia-recruitment-initiative-april-3-2017-4692/?post=22454#22454

Please read the post fully and review the openings before applying.
Please note applications for this round will be ending on the 15th April.

Jason Rainbow
Civic.Asgardia Social Media Coordinator

Hello Everyone!

Please remember that if you want to become more actively involved in Asgardia? We're looking for volunteers to join our moderation and chapter staff!

You can find the posting in the Administrative Affairs forums:
https://asgardia.space/en/forum/forum/civic-asgardia-public-sector-145/topic/civic-asgardia-recruitment-initiative-april-3-2017-4692/?post=22454#22454

Please read the post fully and review the openings before applying.
Please note applications for this round will be ending on the 15th April.

Jason Rainbow
Civic.Asgardia Social Media Coordinator