The Moon: Who Owns It?

Source: The Indian Express

The moon is believed to have formed 4.51 billion years ago and 60 million years after the start of the Solar System. Now I must interject here and say that I’ve never been any good at science. In school my physics and chemistry was poor at best, not because of my intellect, but simply due to my lack of interest. It’s important to have good teachers. Good teachers make all the difference. I had good English teachers. Teachers that, looking back now, played a major role in where I am today. If I could do it over, I would work harder at those real thinker subjects like maths and science. But I digress. I’m here to discuss a topic of interest and debate – that of owning property on the moon. I actually know someone who owns property on the moon and, from what I gather, you can buy an acre for about $24. Along with stars like Tom Cruise and John Travolta, he has secured himself a piece of the moon. Wise property investment? Maybe? I must admit though that it smells more than phoney to me.

Enter Dennis Hope

If you’re ever in the market to buy property on the moon, then Dennis Hope is the man to speak to. To date, Dennis has sold more than 611 million acres of land on the moon with orders coming in on a daily basis. But how legit is this operation? Who gave Dennis the rights to simply sell the moon’s land? Quite frankly I think it’s a load of bull, and yet Mr Hope has been a moon-estate agent since 1980! So how is this possible? Well, if we’re going to run with this for a little while, then he did it by examining an important document relating to the moon and then located a loophole, which he has since exploited. He’s done an exceptional job too; aside from Cruise and Travolta (although this is no surprise), Hope has sold moon property to Barbara Walters, George H.W Bush and Nicole Kidman. Once you’ve purchased your bit of land on the moon, land that you’re unlikely to actually touch in your lifetime, you’re given a lunar land certificate.

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Loophole? What Loophole?

So Dennis Hack, I mean Hope, has been doing his thing since 1980, although he really came into his own in the 90s thanks to the internet. But how has he been managing to get away with it? Well, he examined the 1967 United Nations Outer Space Treaty; a treaty that states that no nation or country can own the moon. Dennis noted that nowhere in the treaty did it say anything about the individual. He then wrote a letter to the United Nations to which they didn’t respond. At the time they probably wondered who this loon was and elected to ignore him. In his letter he claimed ownership over the moon and asked that the UN provide him with a reason as to why an individual would not be able to claim ownership.

Hope is Hopeful & Serious

Hope’s biggest sale was one for $250 000 and it was for 2.66 million acres. He’s also claimed to have been offered $50 million for the north pole of the moon. Hope does all his extra-terrestrial real estate deals by way of his company, the Lunar Embassy Commission and is 110% serious about his deals. I would imagine that no one has stopped him due to the sheer absurdity of what he’s doing. However, a professor of Space Law from the University of Nebraska, Frans von der Dunk, has debunked Hope’s claims by examining the documentation he has used to justify his actions. Von der Dunk has basically said that that if the state cannot have say, then neither can its citizens. In addition to this, he concludes that the US is actually in violation of the 1967 treaty for not taking any kind of action against its citizens for trying to offer pieces of the moon for sale. In essence, Hope is committing fraud by claiming land without owning it. Regardless of these findings, he’s sticking to his guns and so much so that when China announced its intentions to build a moon base, he penned them a letter stating that no Chinese craft would land on the moon without a licensing agreement.

Final Thoughts

I think this bloke has seriously lost the plot. He’s a swindler of epic proportions with no right whatsoever in terms of the moon. He went through a rough divorce, had little funds and figured if he owned property, he could improve his financial situation. He looked out the window and up at the moon and boom! I just don’t buy it, and quite frankly I don’t think anyone should be.

Reggie Washington

Reggie Washington is an avid
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