Extraterrestrial real estate

The Moon as seen by an observer from Earth. Some people claim that private ownership of the Moon might be possible.

Extraterrestrial real estate is either land on other planets or natural satellites or parts of space that is sold either through organizations or by individuals. Such sales are not recognised by any authority, and are expressly forbidden by international treaty.

These sales have inspired certain colourful terms, including things like "Moon for Sale".

Legal issues

The legal issues concerning ownership of extra-terrestrial real estate are still extremely vague. One of the underlying issues is whether private ownership of such property is recognized. As stated by the United Nations "Outer Space Treaty", space is the "province of all mankind." Article 1 -->, and is not subject to claims on sovereignty by States, according to Article 2 of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. As treaties apply to States and place obligations on States, and since the Space Treaties were drafted at a time when, realistically, the only "people" going into space were States, none of the space treaties make reference to private parties. The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 has currently been ratified by 98 states, including all the major space-faring nations.

Legal experts agree that while private ownership of the Moon is not explicitly forbidden, and while Article 6(2) of the Moon Agreement is seen by some as challenging the fundamental notion of non-appropriation in space, property rights on the Moon or other celestial bodies do not exist. The main obstacle to owning a part of the Moon or celestial bodies is that there is no legal system of property law, or indeed any law, on the Moon or celestial bodies, thus no rights of ownership can be created. State sovereignty allows a State to impose and implement its law on its territory, and no state can do this, due to the principle of no-appropriation in space enshrined in Article 2 of the Outer Space Treaty. The Moon Agreement states the "exploration and use of the Moon shall be the province of mankind and shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interest of all countries". Individual ownership rights thus fly in the face of current space law.

However, it should be noted that no major spacefaring nation has ratified the Moon Agreement; thus this treaty was seen as somewhat of a failure. NB: it was signed by some. Eg. Australia, Austria, Belgium, Chile. See http://www.unoosa.org/pdf/publications/ST_SPACE_11_Add1_Rev2E.pdf section C -->

The legal issues partly depend on which is being discussed:

• Land ownership on planets and moons
• Ownership of vacant space

Aware of the need for a stricter approach, the Board of Directors of the International Institute of Space Law (the learned society of space lawyers issued a Statement in 2004 in which it deplored the augmentation in the extraterrestrial real estate business “raising the opportunity for individuals to be misled”.

The statement reads, inter alia – “The prohibition of national appropriation [of outer space and celestial bodies] … precludes the application of any national legislation on a territorial basis to validate a ‘private claim’. Hence, it is not sufficient for sellers of lunar deeds to point to national law, or the silence of national authorities, to justify their ostensible claims. The sellers of such deeds are unable to acquire legal title to their claims. Accordingly, the deeds they sell have no legal value or significance, and convey no recognized rights whatsoever.”

The Board of Directors of the IISL calls State Parties to the Outer Space Treaty to – “comply with their obligations under … the Outer Space Treaty …[being] under a duty to ensure that, in their legal systems, transactions regarding claims to property rights to the Moon and other celestial bodies or parts thereof, have no legal significance or recognised legal effect.”

While space lawyers consider the purported sale of extraterrestrial real estate a trivial matter, pertaining to consumer protection law, most of them agree that the subject of real property rights in outer space needs to be clarified. Among the specialists in the field of extraterrestrial property rights are Wayne J. White Jr., Virgiliu Pop, Alan Wasser and Alexander Soucek of ESA.

Similarities with the Earth

Similar issues were raised with the exploration and colonisation of Antarctica, but since those issues were resolved there have been no claims over land that was not the territory of a nation. The Antarctica issue was clouded by the initial difficulties with establishing permanent residence there, in a similar way to the situation in outer space at present.

Land ownership on planets and moons

The first claim to attract some attention involved a man in Nevada who has been selling square-meter lots on the Moon, posting what purport to be certificates of ownership and locations. A case has yet to go to a court of law attesting ownership.

Moon for sale?

Moon for sale refers to any one of a number of schemes or plans claiming to allow people to purchase portions of the Moon or other celestial bodies.

Though the details of some of the schemes' legal arguments vary, one goes so far as to state that although the Outer Space Treaty, which entered force in 1967, forbids countries from claiming celestial bodies, there is no such provision forbidding private individuals from doing so. The short story The Man Who Sold the Moon by Robert A. Heinlein offers a portrayal regarding such plans or schemes. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land also makes reference to a space law case called the Larkin Decision.

Many states and countries have corollaries to their real estate and property laws to prevent wanton claiming of new-found lands, that state that a simple claim to the territory is not enough; the claimant must also demonstrate "intent to occupy," something that, at this time, is difficult to do with the Moon and any other celestial body.

Considering these facts, legally, the schemes' "deeds" have only symbolic or novelty value and no official governing body in the world has yet granted any legal validity to them.

Supposed moon sellers

Ever since the start of the "Lunar Deeds" craze, various businesses have validated their sale of the deeds via such claims as a supposed loophole in current law. Currently no argument for the validity or invalidity of these arguments have been pressed.

Presently, over the internet, the number of ownership claims by various enterprises and business is astronomical. While various members of the larger "groups" have come forward to assert themselves, none are of any notability over the other in comparison to legal issues nor price issues.

History of extraterrestrial claims

Claims for extraterrestrial real estate are not a new phenomenon. The Moon has been the symbol of supreme desire. Historically, "asking for the Moon" meant asking for the impossible as owning the Moon and the stars was both the ultimate want and the ultimate folly. Given this desire, there ought to arise people who would offer to sell the moon. With or without material aims, many people throughout the ages thought they were the first ones to embed the flag of their desire on the alien orbs. According to Virgiliu Pop, the number of "extraterrestrial real estate" claimants and salesmen is impressive. In 2006, Mr. Pop published a monograph cataloguing these unusual claims. His book mentions, inter alia, that-

• In 1937, A. D. Lindsay of Ocilla, Georgia claimed all “planets, islands-of-space or other matter” in the Universe as his property.
• In the 1940s, people were enquiring with the US Bureau of Land Management for lunar homesteads.
• In 1948, James Thomas Mangan of Chicago proclaimed himself First Representative of the Nation of Celestial Space and envisaged selling “parcels of space” to interested buyers.
• In the 1950s, deeds for square inches of lunar property were offered as premiums with morning cereals.
• In 1952, a Science Fiction club in Berkeley, California claimed a triangular area on the Moon with the United Nations.
• In 1953, Jenaro Gajardo Vera of Chile lodged the first Latin American claim to the Moon.
• In 1955, Crater Copernicus was parceled by Robert R. Coles, the CEO of the Interplanetary Development Corporation, much to the chagrin of the New York State Attorney General’s office.
• Japan entered the extraterrestrial real estate business in 1956.
• In 1957, a Le Mars, Iowa newspaper gave its readers deeds to lunar farms.
• In the 1960s, the Moon and Venus were officially annexed by several municipalities. Deer Park, Texas, claimed planet Venus, while Oklahoma City and Geneva, Ohio expanded their boundaries with the Moon.
• In 1969, a man in Brazil was arrested for selling lunar real estate.
• In the 1970s, Barry McArdle of Berkeley criss-crossed America “selling” the Moon in the mode of the traveling medicine show performer.
• In 1974, land on Mercury was "sold" by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific as a fund raising ploy.
• In 1980, the American Dennis Hope starts his own business, claiming to have found a loophole in international law allowing him to claim full sovereignty of the moon. He was the first to sell lunar deeds (also on the Internet) after sending off declarations to the US, (then) Soviet and UN governments. Hope has so far made $9 million off his business, claiming to sell 1,500 lunar properties a day at $20 an acre. He allocates land to be sold by closing his eyes and randomly pointing to a map of the Moon.
• In 1982, newborn Prince William and Kermit the Frog were given complimentary “Martian Land” packages, courtesy of Fiske Planetarium’s David Aguilar.
• In 1997, three men in Yemen sued NASA for landing on their inheritance – planet Mars.
• In 1998, Mars was claimed by the Western Federation Church and Tribe, who plan to terraform it, provided there is no indigenous life.
• In 1999, The Lunar Registry was founded, like the Lunar Embassy, to sell real estate on the Moon.
• In 2000, Russ Wylie founded buyuranus.com, a humoristic approach outlining the importance of “owning” Uranus.
• In 2001, Orbital Development invoiced NASA for having landed a probe on asteroid Eros, and a legal battle ensued.
• In 2001, Virgiliu Pop lodged a tongue-in-cheek claim for the Sun with the Archimedes Institute.
• In 2002, Anthony M Grasso incorporated the Lunar Federation Inc., according to Articles of Incorporation of the State of Florida, and entered the Moon and Mars Real Estate Business.
• In 2003, Charles Wesley Faires claimed ownership of the three stars of Orion's Belt: Alnilam, Alnitak and Mintaka. The claim has been filed with a Knox County Courthouse, United States Library of Congress and the Kingdom of Swaziland, among other entities.
• In 2005, Marina Bai, a Russian astrologer, sued NASA for having encroached upon her "holy of holies" (the Moon) by landing a probe on comet Tempel 1.
• A company called MoonEstates has also been selling plots on the Moon and Mars, which it "purchased" from Dennis Hope.
• In 2008, Philip Meier, a British student, claimed ownership of all darkmatter, antimatter and all non-matter in the universe (and possible anti-universe). He justified this claim with his belief that nobody ever had claimed non matter before and noone had a better claim to it than himself. He then immediately declared all of his new claim for sale, with all procedes to go to a charity of his and the purchasers agreeing. The progress of the sale is unknown, though rumours say it may be placed on an auction site such as ebay.

Ownership of empty space

Ownership of empty space can be thought of as a different issue to that of land ownership on extra-terrestrial bodies, because of its emptiness, the difficulty of defining its bounds, and the difficulty of keeping anything within it. The United Nations "Outer Space Treaty" reserves space for the good of mankind, and effectively prohibits private ownership of arbitrary parcels of empty space, although governments which have not signed the relevant treaties may dispute the U.N.'s authority in this matter.

A space ownership issue of current practical importance is the allocation of slots for satellites in geostationary orbit. This is managed by the ITU.

See also

• Land claim
• International Ownership Treaties

References

• MSNBC Space Commercialization Article
• ABC News Lunar Commercialization Article
• CNN Property Rights Article
• "Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies"
• Moon Treaty
• CNN Lunar Land Claim
• "Statement by the Board of Directors of the International Institute of Space Law (IISL) On Claims to Property Rights Regarding The Moon and Other Celestial Bodies"
• "Lawyer Claims To 'Own' The Sun"
• "Yemenis claim Mars"
• "I Sold the Moon" - autobiographical book about a former lunar salesman
• I Own Orion's Belt - Local news broadcast about Charles Wesley Faires' claim of ownership of the three stars of Orion's Belt

External links

• United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs
• Outer Space Law (from the United Nations webpage)
• Lunar Real Estate: Buyer, Beware!
• "Unreal Estate: The Men who Sold the Moon" by Virgiliu Pop
• Space Law Probe
• Planetary Institute - Space Law Lobby