6A Project Update (Communiqué #2, 1990)

Since our last communiqué we have discovered the existence of a third asteroid family with Earth—crossing orbits: AMOR. So we’ve decided to change the name of the Provisional Government to: Autonomous Autarkik Asteroids of Aten, Apollo & Amor—or the 6A Project, for short.

Scientists have determined that one of the Amor Family, 1943 Anteros (the number refers to listing in the Minor Planets Catalog) will prove the most easily—accessible of all the asteroids. They suggest 1992 as the ideal date for an unmanned launch to go & fetch samples from Anteros, to determine (among other things) possible mineral resources. The round trip would take 3 years.

B.T. O’Leary has outlined plans for prospecting & retrieval in the 6A region, including a grandiose scheme for moving asteroids into inner—Earth orbits. O’Neil (another mad Celt?) has also published articles on the asteroids as sources of raw materials for Space industrialization.

Not all the members of the Families have been discovered yet. In Aten, 3 have been named out of an estimated 100 (as of 2004, 213 have been identified-JK), In Apollo, 23 have been named out of 400-800 (as of 2004, 1,303 have been identified-JK), and in Amor 20 out of perhaps 2002 (as of 2004, 1,213 have been identified. See catalog of all three groups at: http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/Unusual.html -JK).

Note (in the appended tables) that a few of the 6As are quite large, & would prove suitable for major settlements—each Autark with his/her own dome or cave—or dome Cities based on the “union-of-egoists” principle,. with each citizen “ruling” (owning/prospecting) a tract somewhere on (or off) the planet—like feudal lords who owned estates but lived in London or Paris. Other asteroids are small enough for a single bolo, or even a hermit. Perhaps 2061 Anza, the biggest (450 cubic km) could be reserved for an anarcho-syndicalist or libertarian communist settlement, for those friends who find autarky unsympathetic but who want to participate in the 6A Project.

Each planet will develop its own flags,. banners, stamps etc., but we feel that a single symbol for the 6As would prove useful. We suggest something like the logo above, a black star with As in each of the 5 arms, & a big black A in a white circle in the middle. We invite other designs.

Another suggestion: our “military arm“ or Provisional 6A Peoples Militia might call itself the TEMPESTARII. In the 6^th century the Visigoths passed laws against the Tempestarii who toured the countryside in small bands intimidating the peasants,. claiming they could conjure up storms which would ruin their crops. The peasants paid them to spare theIr fields & blast the next man’s instead. The technique was said to involve the stirring/splashing of water. A pond was said to be ideal, but it was enough to make a small hole in the ground, fill it with water,. or one’s own urine, & stir it with a finger (perhaps this was a scrim of fairy tale behind which lay Reich’s “cloud—busters”).. The Tempestarii were credited with the ability to fly.. Agobard, Bishop of Lyons in 820, tells us that the peasants claimed the Tempestarii removed the crops magically, & carried them away on cloudships to sell in a mysterious land called Mangonia. Agobard claims to have watched 4 strangers -- 3 men & a woman—being seized by peasants who claimed they were Tempestaril, fallen from a cloudship.....

TEMPESTARII sounds an ideal name for anarchist corsairs from outer space. If this idea is adopted we will need to design weapons, standards, banners, uniforms, medals & decorations, etc. Some anarchist armies, such as the Makhnovists, did without uniforms – but others adopted them: e.g., the old Chicago Lehr und Wehr Verein – black uniforms and black slouch hats – or the anarchist “pirates” of G. d’Annunzio’s Republic of Fiume, from whom the SS later stole the idea of black uniforms with skull & crossbone pins.

As for me, tentatively I’ve decided to claim the Amor-family asteroid 1863 Antinous as my domain, under the title Moorish Orthodox Bishop-Governor & Missionary General to the AAAAAA. Thu dome city will of course be called Antinoopolis, after the city in Egypt founded by Hadrian to honor the deified boy from Bithynia. I see an underground temple cut out of the rock, in late Alexandrian style,. complete with sphinxes & pyramids, hanging hydroponic gardens,. statues of all the 6A deities, touches of Buck Rogers-style futurismo—a pilgrimage site and R&R center for all 6A citizens.

Subjects for future reports (please contribute!):

Bibliography & critical articles on solar—system Space settlement, planetary terraforming, L-5 & 0’Neil projects, futurian societies, S.M.I2.L.E., etc.

Bibliography on the asteroids & esp. the 6A region

Homesteading the asteroids—technical proposals

Relevant Science Fiction texts (more bibliography!)

Philately (how to get 6A stamps into circulation now?)

Fund-raising ideas & products: stamps, passports, citizenship papers, patents of nobility, mining claims, spaceship registry1 off—planet banking scams, etc.

Individual reports by 6A citizens on plans for specific asteroids.

* AD ASTRA PER ASPERA *