Battle over the ownership of Moon, Who will win?

Battle over the ownership of Moon, Who will win?

by Manik 12/17/2007 6:09:00 PM

I was watching the Science Channel last night. I couldn't stop laughing when they were talking about Lunar Embassy, which sells real estate in the moon. They even claimed that George W. Bush, Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Nicole Kidman and many other well-known figures are on their client list. I decided then to write a blog entry on this.

The brain behind the whole lunar real estate business is Dennis Hope. Apparently he is running out of his luck now. Lets see whats behind this whole thing.

In 1980, a California man named Dennis Hope reportedly "claimed" the moon as his own property, and since that time has been busily selling off bits and chunks of our nearest extraterrestrial neighbor. Interest in his enterprise has attracted attention from around the world and led to articles and stories in Time and USA Today, as well as on CNN and Space.com.

Hope, a failed actor, ventriloquist and shoe salesman who is serious enough about this venture to call himself "The Head Cheese," has built an amazing cottage industry around his purported claim. He trademarked the term "Lunar Embassy" with the United States Patent and Trademark Office and has marketed his operation well, starting with his humble home base in the tiny California Delta town of Rio Vista. The "Lunar Embassy" currently franchises operations in Australia, Germany and the United Kingdom.

While members of the "serious" space industry — that is, those interested in private enterprise and colonization on the moon — quickly dismiss Hope, those who have actually purchased properties from Hope are, with rare exception, fanatical in their obsession with this matter.

Hope claims he has more then 150,000 clients all over the world.

How they pick the property?

The process is relatively simple. As shown on tv, they close their eyes and blindly hit the map of the moon with a pen tip. If that place is already taken by another customer, they repeat the process.

The Claim

Individuals who purchase property on the moon from Hope receive a parchment "Lunar Deed," a "Lunar Sight Map" (sic) showing the approximate location of the property, a tongue-in-cheek "Lunar Constitution and Bill of Rights," and a booklet entitled "You Own The What?" that tells Hope's broad and fanciful tale of how he came to "own the moon."

Hope's story in his own words

Hope's story, told in his own words, is a sort of modern day Horatio Alger tale:

"...In 1980, a very bright, young and handsome Mr. Dennis Hope, went to his local US Governmental Office for claim registries, the San Francisco County Seat, and made a claim for the entire lunar surface, as well as the surface of all the other eight planets of our solar system and their moons (except Earth and the sun). Obviously, he was at first taken for a crackpot, until, 3 supervisors, 2 Floors and 5 hours later, the main supervisor accepted, and registered his claim."

Is it true? There are controversy about his claim stated above. I will skip the details.

How much money they made?

As per the science channel they have made millions of dollars over the 20+ years period of time. They process about 150 sells per day. About $35 US for each acre of land in the Moon. You do the math.

There are more

You already could make a guess, there are quite a few companies emerged all over the world similar to Lunar Embassy. Selling real estate in the Moon!

All these about to end

Researchers and space enthusiasts see Helium 3 as the perfect fuel source: extremely potent, nonpolluting, withvirtually no radioactive by-product. Proponents claim its the fuel ofthe 21st century. The trouble is, hardly any of it is found on Earth. But there is plenty of it on the moon.

As Helium-3 is non-polluting and is so effective in such tiny quantities, many countries are taking it very seriously. Many countries are studying ways to mine the isotope.

NASA is already in the mission to place Base Station in the Moon where human will actually live. Nasa has rejected Russia's offer for joint Moon Exploration. Then Russia declared they will set a permanent Moon Base Camp by 2015. China is active more then ever with their Moon mission, they sent several missions to the moon over the last 15 months or so and planning more. India is trying to catch up. Now question is who will be the legal owner of the Moon?