Buzz
As unbelievable as it might sound, several individuals have laid claim to ownership of celestial bodies, ranging from the Moon and the Sun to other planets, asteroids, and even the entire solar system. It’s likely just a matter of time before someone claims ownership of ‘Oumuamua.
Some of these self-proclaimed owners went a step further by selling parts or all of their celestial properties to interested buyers. Here are ten individuals who believe they’ve staked their claim on various heavenly bodies. You can decide for yourself whether their assertions hold any weight or if they've taken entitlement to cosmic extremes.
10. Jenaro Gajardo Vera
In 1953, Jenaro Gajardo Vera, a 34-year-old Chilean lawyer and aspiring composer, made his bold claim to the Moon after being rejected from a social club for lacking property. He had visited Club Union Social and applied for membership, but was turned away because club membership required ownership of property, which he did not have.
Gajardo was heartbroken by the rejection. As he left the club, he looked up at the Moon and realized that no one had claimed ownership of it. Determined, he went to the Chilean property registration office and applied to register the Moon in his name. The official in charge warned him that people might consider him a fool for claiming ownership of the Moon.
Despite the warning, Gajardo was firm in his decision and was instructed to publish his claim three times in a journal as required by law. He complied. No one contested his claim, and in September 1954, he paid 42 pesos to receive a certificate confirming his ownership of the Moon. Armed with his official document, he returned to Club Union Social, where he was finally accepted as a member.
A month before Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the Moon in 1969, Gajardo accused the United States of trespassing and threatened legal action. There are rumors (likely unfounded) that Richard Nixon later sent him a telegram asking for his permission before the astronauts could land on “his” Moon.
Another story suggests that the Chilean Bureau of Internal Revenue once accused Gajardo of failing to pay taxes on the Moon. Gajardo claimed he had not paid the tax because he didn’t know the Moon's true value. He invited tax inspectors to meet him on the Moon so they could assess its value for themselves, but the inspectors never showed up.
Gajardo passed away on June 29, 1998, and it is said that he willed the Moon to all the people of Chile. However, as of 2005, his granddaughter Ivonne Gajardo Quezada was still maintaining her family’s claim to ownership of the Moon.
9. Dennis Hope
Dennis Hope asserts that he owns Earth's Moon, Io (one of Jupiter's moons), Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Pluto. He first declared ownership of the Moon in the 1980s when he discovered that the 1967 United Nations Outer Space Treaty prohibited nations—yet not individuals—from claiming ownership of space and celestial bodies.
Hope offers lunar land for sale at $19.95 per acre. Additional costs for lunar tax, shipping, and handling bring the price to $36.50 per acre. He provides discounts for larger purchases and once sold 2.66 million acres (about the size of a country) for $250,000. He refuses to sell famous lunar locations and turned down $50 million from a group interested in buying the Moon's north pole.
Hope has earned over $11 million by selling acres of the Moon to more than six million buyers, including celebrities like Barbara Walters, Tom Cruise, and former U.S. presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush. He currently focuses on selling Moon land because he lacks adequate maps for the other celestial bodies he claims. However, for $250,000, anyone can purchase all of Pluto.
Hope also leads the Galactic Government, a democratic republic whose citizens are those who have purchased land from him. The republic even has its own currency, the delta, which Hope has tried to get the International Monetary Fund and other countries to recognize. At one point, someone attempted to challenge Hope’s claim to the Moon by asserting ownership of the Sun and sending him an energy bill for using it. Hope refused to pay and instead told the sender to turn off the Sun. Ouch!
8. Greg Nemitz
The near-Earth asteroid (NEA) 433 Eros was independently discovered by Gustav Witt and Auguste Charlois on August 13, 1898. This asteroid made history in several ways. It was the first NEA to be identified, the first asteroid to be orbited by a spacecraft, and the first asteroid where a spacecraft actually landed. These achievements were made possible by NASA’s NEAR spacecraft on February 14, 2000, and February 12, 2001, respectively.
Greg Nemitz wasn’t pleased with the landing, as he considered the asteroid his private property. Nemitz claimed ownership of the asteroid, asserting that he was the first person to stake a claim. Apparently, neither Witt nor Charlois ever made such a claim. Nemitz promptly sent NASA a parking fee of $20 for using space 29 of his asteroid’s parking lot. The fee was charged at 20 cents per year for a century. NASA refused to pay, and the case went to court. NASA won the lawsuit.
7. Adam Ismail, Mustafa Khalil, And Abdullah Al-Umari
In 1997, three Yemeni men—Adam Ismail, Mustafa Khalil, and Abdullah Al-Umari—filed a lawsuit against NASA for landing the Sojourner rover on Mars. These men claimed to be descendants of the Himyarite and Sabaean tribes from ancient Arabia. They argued that their ancestors had built seven temples dedicated to seven planets, including Mars, which they believed served as intermediaries to their god.
The men also claimed they had the necessary documents to prove their ownership of the Red Planet. They sent their lawsuit to the national prosecutor's office in Yemen, but the prosecutor rejected the claim and even threatened them with imprisonment. Ultimately, the men withdrew their legal action, but they continued to sell land on Mars for $2 per square mile.
6. Phillip Davies
In 2015, President Obama signed the US Space Act into law, which allows American companies to claim ownership of anything they mine from celestial bodies. This move sparked the belief in people like Phillip Davies, a doctor from Hampshire, UK, that a space-based gold rush might soon be upon us.
Dr. Phillip believes the 1967 UN Space Treaty, which was intended to regulate space colonization, prevent its militarization, and prohibit ownership of celestial bodies, is outdated. To prevent any other individual or nation from claiming Mars, he declared ownership of the Red Planet.
To solidify his claim, Dr. Phillip uses a laser to target Mars, claiming that the beam warms the planet and enhances its atmosphere, as well as any life that may exist there. He is also selling plots of land for one cent each, having already sold parcels to 13,000 buyers—mostly supporters of his mission. Dr. Dennis intends to transfer ownership of Mars to the United Nations once he gathers sufficient backing.
5. Maria Angeles Duran
Maria Angeles Duran, a Spanish woman, claims to own the Sun. She first made her declaration in 2010 after noticing that Dennis Hope was profiting from selling lunar real estate. In 2013, she created an eBay account where she offered 1-square-meter (11 ft) plots on the Sun for €1. Buyers received a certificate of ownership, though there was no explanation of how they would determine the exact location of their plot on the Sun.
eBay disagreed with the idea that someone could own pieces of the Sun and suspended Duran’s account for dealing in intangible goods. Duran, however, was undeterred. She hired lawyers and took legal action against eBay, arguing that if people could sell other natural resources like water and wind, she should have the right to sell land on the Sun, a natural resource as well.
Duran further contended that the 1967 UN Space Treaty doesn’t prohibit individuals from claiming ownership of celestial bodies. However, the court didn’t delve into whether the treaty prevented ownership of the Sun. Instead, it assessed whether Duran had breached eBay’s terms by attempting to sell plots on the Sun.
4. Sylvio Langevin
Sylvio Langevin, a Canadian, took a different route compared to others on this list. Instead of targeting the Sun or Moon, he boldly claimed ownership of all the planets in the solar system (including Earth), four of Jupiter’s moons, and even the vast emptiness of space itself. In 2012, he filed a lawsuit to secure his ownership, stating that only God had the authority to challenge his control over these celestial bodies.
Langevin had a reputation for filing frivolous and absurd lawsuits. Between 2001 and 2012, he filed more than 45 lawsuits and had been barred from filing any more without court approval by the time he pursued ownership of the entire solar system. This ban had been imposed in 2009 following a bizarre $1 billion lawsuit. His solar system claim may have been an attempt to circumvent this restriction.
3. The Elves’, Gnomes’, And Little Men’s Science Fiction, Chowder, And Marching Society
In February 1952, The Elves’, Gnomes’, and Little Men’s Science Fiction, Chowder, and Marching Society (yes, that's the actual name of the group) claimed part of the Moon as their own after supposedly discovering deposits of sylvanite there.
The science fiction society from Berkeley sent a letter to the UN, requesting a patent and ownership title for their Moon territory. In return, they promised to share 90 percent of the profits from mining the mineral with the UN. The letter was addressed to Oscar Schachter, the head of the UN’s legal department, and similar letters were also sent to President Harry Truman and several media outlets.
This claim, however, was just a publicity stunt to garner more funding. The society had no real intention of pursuing it. Despite this, their fame grew far beyond their expectations once the media picked up the story. President Truman never responded to their letter, but Oscar Schachter replied after a series of correspondence. He made it clear that the UN had no jurisdiction over the Moon and could not grant their request.
2. Martin Juergens
Martin Juergens is another individual who claims the Moon. According to his story, King Frederick the Great allegedly bestowed the Moon upon his family in the 18th century. The tale suggests that King Frederick frequently visited one of Juergens's ancestors, a farmer and healer, to treat a severe case of gout. In addition to the treatment, the healer is said to have blessed the king, which was one of the reasons behind his victory in the Seven Years' War.
In gratitude, the king supposedly gifted the Moon to the Juergens family and declared that every child in the family would continue to hold ownership of the Moon as long as Earth existed. Martin Juergens challenged Dennis Hope's claim to the Moon, but Hope dismissed him, stating that Juergens lacked the necessary documentation to support his ownership.
Juergens asserted that the decree transferring the Moon to his family, dated July 15, 1756, had been filmed by several TV crews. However, Juergens has yet to sell any plots on the Moon. It's possible that his claim to ownership was just an attempt to halt Hope's selling of lunar land.
1. James Thomas Mangan
On December 20, 1948, James Thomas Mangan boldly declared that all of space was his domain and appointed himself as its 'first representative.' His grand declaration caught the attention of the media, with reporters and TV crews following him as he registered his newly formed country with the recorder of deeds in Cook County, Illinois.
The recorder of deeds initially dismissed Mangan’s claims, but the state attorney general later ruled in his favor. Following this, Mangan sent a letter to the UN and 74 secretaries of state, asking for recognition of his new country and its acceptance as a UN member state. The UN rejected his request. Nevertheless, Mangan persisted and raised his national flag outside the UN building in New York.
Mangan introduced a coin called the Celeston, which he declared as the official currency of his self-proclaimed nation. He regularly sent Celestons, along with Moon passports, to astronauts. He had originally planned to sell plots of space, each the size of Earth, for just $1. However, when people showed interest in purchasing, he refunded their money. Mangan passed away in 1970, leaving his country to his descendants as per his will.
