Did you ever gaze up at the moon at night wondering what it would be like to live there? Writers like H G Wells and Jules Verne filled imaginations with tales from space, and science fiction movies added to the adventure. In 1969, the world appeared to stand still as Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon and made the impossible possible. Well, you may never have the chance to go during your lifetime, but you still can proudly own your own piece of the moon thanks to The Lunar Embassy.
The Lunar Embassy (www.lunarembassy.com) has been selling property in outer space for over 20 years. You can currently buy property on the Moon, Mars, Venus and Jupiter's moon. The company and the property sales are completely legal. According to the website, M Dennis Hope went to his local US Governmental Office for claim registries in 1980 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. His claim was registered and he then notified the General Assembly of the United Nations as well as the governments of the United States and Russia. No one contested the claim. Mr Hope copyrighted his work with the US copyright office and began selling extraterrestrial properties.
The cost is amazingly affordable. Roughly US$20 dollars will buy you a chunk of land about the sIze of Manhattan. The Lunar Embassy has billions and billions of pieces of land available and would love nothing better than to have multitudes of people become property owners in space. Of course, maintenance is up to you.
Since the property sales have begun, The Lunar Embassy has facilitated sales of the Hope Claim to over one million people in 175 countries on Earth. "Among the property owners," said Mr Hope, "we number two former Presidents of the United States, more than 400 celebrities including Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford, Tom Hanks, John Travolta, Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Frakes. We have among us scientists, attorneys, doctors, dentists, journalists, lawmen, plumbers, educators, and people from every walk of life here on Earth."
On July 20th, The Lunar Embassy explained the groundwork for the next step for mankind. At a press conference held at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, Mr Hope revealed plans for the organisation and development of celestial properties held by over one million people around the world. "We have reached a point," said Mr Hope," where we can no longer see ourselves merely as property owners. We are on the verge of becoming a vast community with diverse interests in exploration, experimentation, commerce and tourism. We want to enjoy life in space, on the moon and other celestial bodies."
Space tourism was recently thrust into the spotlight when Dennis Tito, a Californian businessman and former NASA employee, hitched a ride with two Russian cosmonauts for the international space station. The trip reportedly cost Tito somewhere in the neighbourhood of 20 million dollars. It will be a long time before the price is ever within reach for the masses, but space tourism is definitely going to continue.
Space Adventures, a Virginia company that arranged Tito's flight to the International Space Station, has already taken 150 customers to 80,000 feet, just to the edge of the earth's atmosphere, where the darkness of space and the curvature of the earth are visible. Officials at Space Adventures think they can have a privately built sub-orbital rocket that is able to take passengers on a trip to space for the relatively low price of $98,000 within three years. The trip would be similar to the one first taken by U S astronaut Alan Shepherd 40 years ago.
"Development of communities of interest," continued Mr Hope, "will spur development in space and on celestial bodies especially the Moon and Mars. Our announcement comes at a fortuitous time in history. Think of all that has gone before to make it possible. In our time we have seen the first space tourist, Mr Tito. Now it is time for the Lunar Embassy to take the next big step. Will this next step be a positive impact on all governments and their citizens of Earth? We certainly hope so."