Can the Moon be sold? Apparently yes, and other planets too. If you want to purchase an extraplanetary plot in your name, all you have to do is go to the website Lunar Embassycreated by the 76-year-old Dennis Hopeeccentric American ex-ventriloquist and car salesman from Nevada with a passion for space.
Anyone can buy a plot of Luna, but also of Mars, Mercury, Venus and Pluto at rather modest prices: from $34.99 per acre and up.
Mr. Hope said in an interview that even two former U.S. presidents, Jimmy Carter And Ronald Reaganpurchased lunar plots from him through their personal assistants.
How Hope got the idea to sell “pieces” of Luna
The brilliant idea for Hope came in 1980, in the midst of the emotional storm caused by the divorce with his wife. He was broke and had no idea how to get by when one evening, while observing the moon from the window of his new house, a brilliant idea came to him: sell plots of lunar soil. Put like that, it seems like a really crazy idea, but Hope was very serious: the next day he flew to the library and looked for the Treatise on Outer Space (1967), focusing on the part of interest to him, article 2:
No nation can have sovereignty or control over any satellite body by appropriation.” Which means that that territory was nobody’s property.
Since the article prohibits nations to have control over the planets and satellites, but not the privateHope exploited this technicality to claim ownership of the Moon and other planets in our solar system (annexed moons) to the United Nations in a letter, specifying that if there were any legal problems they should let him know.
The institution never responded to the letterand Hope interpreted the lack of response as a green light. He opened the Lunar Embassy website and immediately put parcels of lunar land up for sale for $24 an acre. However, inflation is galloping, and now there is a surcharge of 10 dollars more.
How much a piece of lunar land costs and how much Hope has earned so far
Currently an acre of lunar land bought on the Lunar Embassy site costs $34.99 per acre.
Much to the surprise of many, quite a few people made purchases on the site. It is estimated that over the years the sale of title deeds to extraterrestrial land has brought him at least some profit 12 million dollars. However, if you are interested in buying the entire Pluto, make sure you have a large bank account: Hope is selling it for $250,000.
But how does the eccentric owner of Lunar Embassy choose which one area assigning customers who want a plot in Space is even more fun: close your eyes and assigns it randomly.
In space… “Whoever finds keeps”?
If the 1967 Treaty prohibits declaring sovereignty over the Moon and planets of our galaxy, the question is completely different regarding the material found on the latter during space missions. Thanks to a 2015 US law, the Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act (SPACE)if a private company operating in space reaches the celestial body it is aiming for, he can do what he wants with the material he finds.
In the text it is explicitly written:
A U.S. citizen engaged in the commercial recovery of an asteroid resource or space resource shall be entitled to any asteroid resource or space resource obtained, including owning, transporting, using, and selling the asteroid resource or space resource obtained in accordance with the applicable law, including international obligations of the United States.
In total, whoever arrives first gets the resource in question.
The legal disputes of the future: who owns the Moon
Hope’s undoubtedly original business idea, which opened a debate: who owns the Moon? There is no answer to this question. At least 18 world states claim that the Moon belongs to everyone, another 110 that it belongs to no one. The owner of Lunar Embassy himself, interviewed by Politico stated:
It’s always a battle trying to retain ownership of what you think is yours.
Having said that, it is necessary to remember that at the time of Treatise on Outer Space things were different: in those 2200 words there was a vision of space different from that of today. Back then it was still an environment of mere study, exploration and discovery, while in recent years it has become more and more an environment commercial objectiveand in the future the situation will almost certainly see regulations between countries to grab their “space in space”.
Too few words in that treaty, which offer no answers on what can be done in space now that things have changed, from the acquisition and exploitation of natural resources to the construction of public and private spaces (the document also stated that the nations can use the Moon and other planets for peaceful purposes onlyand that it is prohibited to build military bases there or place weapons of lethal destruction).
China, however, in defiance of the Treaty, has already developed “satellite killers” (projectiles capable of destroying satellites), and tested one in 2007 on one of its old weather satellites. The satellite shattered into hundreds of pieces of debris, adding to other space debris.
As if that wasn’t enough, the former president of the United States Donald Trump had ordered the creation of one US Space Forcesending other nations into paranoia about a possible US violation of the Treaty.
So far the treaty has been respected, and the certificates sold by Lunar Embassy are a nice gift for space lovers, but the business is not meant to last foreveralso because in the space industry (and not only) there are increasingly more requests for revision of the Space Treaty. We cannot yet predict the changes that will occur, but if there are divisions of extraterrestrial land between private individuals and nations we will have to ask ourselves: who will establish and enforce the rules? Who will mediate disputes? And above all… how much will a “corner” of the Moon cost?
