ISRO
Despite claiming to own the Moon and claiming that he has already earned US$12 million from land sales, there is no legal basis to support Dennis Hope’s claim.
Imagine you’ve just gotten divorced, you’re broke, and you’re thinking about how you could earn something if you had property to enjoy. Then he looks out the window and exclaims: “I will sell the moon.”
It seems unbelievable, doesn’t it? But that was exactly what the North American man thought in 1980. Dennis Hope. And, after this moment of inspiration, he says he became a millionaire selling land on the Moon.
How did you get it?
Hope very skillfully took advantage of the “legal loopholes” existing in international treaties.
Let’s go to the library!
After coming up with his grand idea, he decided to look for information.
Hope said, in an interview given a few years ago to Vice magazine, that she went to a library and consulted the Outer Space Treatyfrom 1967.
The United Nations (UN) document defines that outer space is an international common good, “province of all humanity“Therefore, it is prohibited for any nation to claim its territorial sovereignty.
Specifically, article 2 determines that “the Moon and other celestial bodies are not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, use or occupation, or by any other means”.
Hope interpreted the determination as follows: if it belongs to everyone, it belongs to no one. And while a country couldn’t claim it, why not an individual?
“It was a land without an owner“, he declared, in an interview with .
Therefore, he appropriated the Moon, as, according to him, “our ancestors did, when they arrived from Europe to the New World”, referring to European colonization of the Americas.
The big question is how someone can “appropriate” the Moon. And, again, Hope used a kind of legal loophole, or rather, the lack of response.
He sent the United Nations a claim of ownership over the Moon, the other eight planets and their moons.
Hope explained that her idea was subdivide and sell the properties to anyone who wanted to purchase. And he made it clear in his request that, if there were any legal problems, he would be notified. No one responded to your request.
As a gift, the Moon
Since then, Hope sells land on the Moonin hectares. And not only on our satellite, but also land on Mars, Venus and Mercury.
Among the owners, according to him, are Hollywood starsformer American presidents, such as Ronald Reagan (1911-2004), Jimmy Carter (1924-2024) and George W. Bush, and large hotel chains.
Hope told the BBC in 2007 that he sold, on average, 1500 lands per day. And he said that the way to choose the lots was to close your eyes and point with your index finger at a point on the map of the Moon.
“It’s not very scientific, but it’s fun“, he declared. Apparently, as fun as it is profitable. On the Politico website, in 2019, he calculated a profit of around 12 million dollars from this, which, according to him, has been his only work since 1995.
“The smallest lot you can buy is one acre (0.4 hectare). The biggest lot we sell is what we call a ‘continental-sized’ property of 5,332,740 acres (2,158,087 hectares), which costs 13.331 million dollars”.
“We haven’t sold any of these lots yet, but We have already sold a lot of land of 1,800 and 2,000 acres [728 e 809 hectares]”, Hope continues. “We have 1,800 large corporations on the planet that have purchased purpose-built properties from us, including the Hilton and Marriott hotel chains.”
Intergalactic Constitution
You are certainly wondering how this continues or what guarantee its owners have that they will not see their land suddenly expropriated.
Of course Hope and all the owners thought the same. And obviously, they found a solution.
Hope explains that they decided form a democratic republic called “Galactic Government”.
“We take three years to draft the Constitutionwhich was published on the internet in March 2004″, he says.
“At the time, we had 3.7 million owners and 173,562 votes for its ratification. Therefore, today we are a sovereign nation, with a fully ratified Constitution.”
“At the moment, We maintain diplomatic relations with 30 governments on the planet“, according to Hope, “and we are trying to get as many people as possible to recognize us, as our intention is to join the International Monetary Fund.”
The BBC was unable to independently confirm these claims.
The Chilean who tried to take possession of the Moon
Long before human beings considered the real possibility of setting foot on the Moon, the topic of property of celestial bodies.
Em 1936, Dean Lindsay claimed ownership not only of the Moonbut of all extraterrestrial objects. And, at that time, he also received purchase offers.
The same did lawyer Jenaro Gajardo Vera. Born in Chile in 1919, he defended having obtained possession of the Moon on September 25, 1954as stated in the official documentation signed at a notary’s office, in which he is mentioned as “owner of the Moon”.
The property registration is a document signed by a notary in the agricultural city of Talca, in central Chile, which is approximately 255 km from the country’s capital, Santiago, where it is registered in the Judicial Archive. It says the following:
“Jenaro Gajardo Veraa lawyer, has been the owner, since before 1857, joining his ownership to that of his predecessors, of the star, the Earth’s unique satellite, with a diameter of 3,475.98 kilometers, called the MOON, whose limits, as it is spheroidal, are: North, South, East and West, outer space. His domicile is Rua 1 Oriente 1270 and his marital status is single. Jenaro Gajardo Vera. Carnet 1,487.45-K. Ñuñoa. Talca, September 25, 1954.”
But the case of Gajardo Vera It’s the result of a joke.
He himself told the American newspaper The Evening Independent, in 1969, that he wanted to take possession of the Moon to join a local association, the Talca Social Club.
Gajardo Vera declared that the club’s rules determined that members of the society must demonstrate ownership of some asset. Lacking resources and eager to be part of this society, which brought together wealthy people from the locality, it occurred to the lawyer to buy the Moon.
The purchase cost one dollar, according to the American newspaper.
Ethereal business
Hope maintains her intergalactic real estate business. But even so, experts say that the moon belongs to no oneat least legitimately.
The 1967 international treaty establishes that the exploration and use of Space must benefit and be in the interest of all countries.
Is it possible, then, that someone individually can declare themselves the owner of the Moon?
“No”, replied emphatically, in 2019, Law professor and specialist in international law Claire Finkelstein, from the University of Pennsylvania, in the United States, to the news portal WHY, associated with the American public radio network NPR.
Mass answer is not so clear when it comes to commercial activities in Space, such as resource exploration.
“International law is ambiguous regarding private companies establishing mining operations in Space“, Professor of Planetary Sciences Ian Crawford, from Birbeck College in London, told the BBC for a report published in 2016.
“It is necessary to review the Outer Space Treaty and update it,” he stated.
But, until that happens, according to space law, the Moon belongs to no one and belongs to everyone at the same time.
