“Buy land on the Moon and build a house now! Buy a plot on the Moon cheaply!” — seeing that headline you must be thinking: is that even possible? Of course it is. Well, half of it. You can indeed buy land on the Moon; in which year you will manage to build the house, who knows! The headline is in fact written sarcastically. It was really seeing so much news of this kind that I could not help writing about it.
Let's look at a few news headlines.
- Two young Bangladeshis have bought land on the Moon!
- Asim of Khulna has given his wife land on the Moon!
- Now Sujon of Sylhet has bought land on the Moon!
So much for the news from Bangladesh. Now let's see how things stand in neighbouring India.
- Sushant was the first Bollywood star to buy land on the Moon!
It does not end there. The list includes people from the United States too.
- Three former American presidents — George Bush, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan — have bought land on the Moon!
After all that you surely have no worries left. So go and buy your plot right now. But here is the thing: the land has been bought — how will you build the house? Nothing to it: rent a rocket from SpaceX. Then take your family and your workers and go off on a tour to the Moon. A very easy job.
Who is selling land on the Moon?
No — unlike in a Hollywood film, NASA (NASA is America's space research organisation) has no hand in this. The land on the Moon is sold by an American gentleman named Dennis Hope. The price of each acre he owns starts at 25 dollars, which is about 2,131 taka in Bangladeshi currency (at today's rate). Buying land for a song, as they say! Are you interested? Then go and buy some today. I take no responsibility, though.
Can you really buy land on the Moon?
In 1967, on the United Nations' initiative, the United States, the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom signed a treaty called the ‘Outer Space Treaty'. That treaty says that no particular country may claim sovereignty or ownership over the Moon or the other planets and satellites of space, or establish control of any kind over them. Many describe the treaty as the ‘Magna Carta' of space. Up to February 2021, 111 countries had signed it. It is because of this treaty that no country can fly a flag on the Moon and claim ownership of it. Otherwise a war between the great powers over the Moon might well have broken out by now.
The treaty has a small loophole, though. While the 1967 treaty speaks about state rights over the Moon's land, it says nothing about private and corporate rights. So if some rich individual really does want to buy a piece of land on the Moon, the question of what happens in their case remains open. Even legal experts have been left thinking about it. So for now, if someone claims the Moon as their own property, there is no room to dismiss it out of hand.
What is the future of buying land on the Moon?
Take buying land on the Moon as a bit of fun for the time being. First, you will not be able to go to the Moon in your lifetime. Second, even if you went, you could not stay there for want of an atmosphere. So the matter will remain a fun fact. And it is foolish to imagine that you will truly own land on the Moon for a mere two thousand taka. For two thousand, take a deed and a map of the place for now.