Who Owns the Moon?

by Diane Rhodes

We've all seen them; those ads in the back of magazines and comic books, giving the public the opportunity to "Buy a piece of the Moon!". Some of you may even have a framed certificate, naming the location of your "estate".

Do these pieces of paper confer ownership? Don't you have to own something in the first place in order to sell it? Apparently not. These pieces of paper claim to confer ownership, because they SAY so. Read the FAQ sheet for this company and see what you think: http://www.moonproperty.net/info/faq_a.shtml

Or how about a piece of high-flying acreage, available at your corner supermarket? Check out what this British firm offered in Dec. 2000: http://www.cosmiverse.com/space120104.html.

The issue of space property rights is an important one, though. If you are going to spend billions of dollars to develop an asteroid, you will definitely want to have clear title to it first! A lot of property law historically has its origins in British property law, but the British never forsaw this state of affairs!

And governments are not going to concede ownership of their expensive space stations and attendant hardware without a fight. Mark Shuttleworth wanted to buy his Soyuz space capsule and space suit from his recent tourist jaunt, as "souvenirs". Here is what the Russian government has to say about it: http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/soyuz_sale_020506.html

Yet clearly these are issues which must be defined and codified, for the development of space. Recently a case came to light in the media which, while sounding frivolous at first, brings up the very issues which will have to be settled eventually for humans to live in space: http://www.orbdev.com/reason.html

Some have proposed using "land grants" to open the space frontier, as in this treatise put forward by Alan Wasser: http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/lunar_law_000725.html

The future will require a policy on this in the future, and the new precedents that will be necessary to settle ownership of space assets.

Next month: Salvage law in space.