Do Some People Really Own Parts Of The Moon?
You may have heard that some people own parts of the moon. But is it true? And if so, how does this happen? The short answer is yes. There are private companies that say they own parts of the moon. Some people even have lunar land deeds from these companies — although those deeds don't actually mean anything since they don't reflect any actual claim by anyone to own any part of outer space.
The Outer Space Treaty was signed by the United States, Russia and the United Kingdom among others in 1967. It established that outer space is free for all countries to explore.
The treaty says that no country can claim ownership of anything in outer space. Article II of the Outer Space Treaty states that “outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means.”
This means that no one country has any special legal rights to any part of outer space or its contents—including the moon.
It's true that some countries have claimed ownership of the moon under their own laws. These claims have been made without regard to the international agreement on the moon's legal status, which most countries support and which has been incorporated into national law. Some of these claims are based on the idea that the moon is a natural object, rather than an artificial one created by humans.
But those claims have been made without regard to the international agreement on the moon's legal status. As a result, they have no validity under any treaty or law.
We've all seen the ads for companies that claim to sell lunar land deeds. One of the most popular is Lunar Embassy, which claims to own various parts of the moon and will sell you a deed for your very own plot.
The company's website states: "The moon, being a lifeless and uninhabited world, is free for anyone to claim." The site boasts that it's sold more than 1 million plots in its 30-plus years of operation and has been featured in numerous news outlets including USA Today, ABC News, Fox News and Time magazine. But does this mean these companies actually own any territory on our satellite? The simple answer is no—and here's why:
The deeds themselves aren't legally binding, enforceable, or recognized. They're just symbolic pieces of paper that show you own a patch of land on the moon.
The only way to make it official is if your government recognizes the deed as valid. In other words: If your country says it owns a piece of the moon, then congratulations! Your home country "owns" it too! And if no one owns anything in space...? That's when things get complicated...
NASA has said that under U.S. law and international treaties, there are basically three ways a country can obtain rights over an object in space.
The first two ways would be for a country to either launch something into space or land on an asteroid first — although neither would give a nation legal ownership over it.
The third way is bringing back fragments from another planet or celestial body and making them part of its territory. This happened in 1997 when the U.S. brought back about 1,500 pounds of rocks from the moon.
The main takeaway is that there are no private companies or countries that have ownership of the moon under any law. The only way for a country to have ownership over an object in space is through international agreements and treaties, which do not apply here because they were made with countries who had no right to make claims on outer space in the first place.