Space Settlements, Property Rights, and International Law: Could a Lunar Settlement Claim the Real Estate It Needs to Survive?

Alan B. Wasser, The Space Settlement Institute
Douglas O. Jobes, The Space Settlement Institute

Abstract

ABSTRACT. The settlement of space and the expansion of the habitat of humanity beyond Earth will benefit all mankind but will be astronomically expensive. Private enterprise would do it if there were a sufficient profit potential, something only Lunar and Martian real estate is valuable enough to provide. Utilization of this tremendous potential value as an incentive has been prevented by the mistaken assumption that the 1967 Outer Space Treaty's prohibition of "national appropriation" and requirement of national supervision of private activities prohibit private property in space. This paper attempts to demonstrate, by expert legal consensus, that the 1967 Outer Space Treaty does not prohibit private space settlements from claiming private ownership of land around their base, nor does it prohibit nations from recognizing such claims nor allowing the sale of portions of that land to their citizens on Earth.