Former Montgomeryshire MP Lembit Opik has revealed his astronomical ambitions for humanity.

Mr Opik joined the digital space nation Asgardia in 2018 as Chair of the Parliament. The online nation is the brainchild of Azerbaijan-born billionaire Dr Igor Ashurbeyli, who acts as head of the nation with 150 MPs and over a million followers worldwide.

The objective of Asgardia is to establish colonies for humans in space and Mr Opik has said targets are ambitious – including the first birth of a child in space and the first permanent human space habitation – "It’s a high ambition but sooner or later we have to grasp the nettle and make those things happen.”

 

County Times: Lembit Opik at the first meeting of the Asgardia Parliament

County Times: An artist's impression of what the future space colony could look like. Pic courtesy of james@jamesvaughanphoto.comAn artist's impression of what the future space colony could look like. Pic courtesy of james@jamesvaughanphoto.com

They are also planning to launch a second satellite into space after successfully launching their Asgardia 1 satellite in November 2017.

Mr Opik said he realises the plans require much time and funding.

“It has to self-fund or it is a charitable adventure for philanthropists, we want to be a hard nosed business proposition where people can get rich – building a space station that you can live on indefinitely isn’t like buying a second hand car.

“You can only get humans into space and have sustainable space stations in orbit or on other celestial bodies for billions and the objective is to self-fund that as a nation.”

County Times: Mr Opik congratulating Dr Ashurbeyli at his inauguration

County Times: The members of the space nation's parliament

This is being done through a form of crowdfunding from “residents” of the nation although most money has been donated by Dr Ashurbeyli.

“No human, not even Elon Musk could indefinitely fund a nation, it has to run at a surplus,” said Mr Opik. “It’s a multi-year program and we have set the target of 2043 for human habitation."

This for Mr Opik is part of a lifelong love of space that runs in the family with his father, nuclear physicist, Uno Opik and his grandfather, renowned astronomer Ernst.

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“For me space has been a passion and interest all my life, I was honoured to meet Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon and Gene Cernan – who was a friend of mine – who was the last man on the moon," said Mr Opik.

Mr Opik said he intends to run again for Chair of the Asgardia Parliament later this year and said he found its partyless system effective, adding that opening the parliament in front of 600 million viewers was one of the highlights of his life.

“That will commit me for a five-year term –I will see how it is after that. One of the things I learned as an MP is that you shouldn’t think of it as a job for life because people go stale you always need to have new blood, new thinking."