You Can Own a Lunar Acre for $14

Sept. 8 -- Sure, it’s far from most amenities, like shopping, schools and the beach. And the commute would be a killer.

But boy, what a view.

One of the last frontiers of real estate, the moon, can be had for a song, thanks to an American entrepreneur who has laid claim to all lunar territories (as well as eight planets).

Dennis Hope, of Rio Vista, Calif., operates the Lunar Embassy as a land speculator for off-world real estate. Hope has granted rights to sell bits of the moon to the Internet site MoonEstates.com, a British real estate agency. The price: £10, or $14, an acre.

“The whole concept of owning a piece of the moon is such a cool one,” said Francis Williams, a founder of MoonEstates.com.

“The moon represents huge potential,” he added.

MoonEstates.com says there are presently 300,000 Earthbound owners of lunar land, some of the more illustrious being former presidents Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter, John Travolta, Nicole Kidman, and some cast members of Star Trek.

A Homesteader Far From Home

The Outer Space Treaty, signed by the United Nations in 1967, bans any nation from laying claim to the moon. But the treaty does not say individuals cannot own lunar land. That opened the door for Hope, who laid claim to the entire land surface of the moon 20 years ago, under the Homestead Act of 1862.

Hope notified the governments of the U.S. and the then-Soviet Union, as well as the United Nations General Assembly. They did not object or officially dismiss his claim, and so the celestial squatter proceeded to sell acreage of off-world properties.

Hope formed the Lunar Embassy and drew up a “bill of rights” for the moon.

“You have the right to be guided by your heart … To seek human dignity and honor … To pursue happiness, freedom of speech, religion and property management,” it says.

Clients receive a deed and map of their holdings, which they can view with a reasonably good telescope.