| Land
That's Out of This World |
| Real estate prices in this area have been skyrocketing for
so long, I think it's time we all took off, literally. |
| Buying acres of land on the moon is all the rage, and some
people are suggesting there could be a land rush going on
as people scramble to get the somewhat legally dubious rights
to territory on the lunar surface. |
| If you think prices in Fairfax County were shooting up at
a remarkable rate a couple of years ago, imagine this: Land
on the moon was selling for pennies per acre until the beginning
of this year. Today one acre will cost you about $30 where
that same investment would get you 30,000 acres a little while
ago. |
| Oh sure, it's all kind of sketchy from a legal perspective.
But when has that ever stopped a good, old-fashioned capitalist?
The Lunar Registry, which calls itself the "Earth's Leading
Lunar Real Estate Agency," reports it has sold moon property
to more than 850,000 people around the world. |
| "Much more meaningful than naming a non-descript star millions
of light years away, land on the Moon is a unique gift you
can view almost every night," declares the Lunar Registry
Web site. |
| The group says the land is authenticated with a certificate,
a satellite photograph and geographic information to locate
the property by looking through a telescope, and by foot.
"We are offering a limited number of ‘shares' in lunar property
in order to fund privatized exploration, settlement and development
of the Moon," Lunar Registry says. The growth of the value
of the shares of land, it says, are dependent on the Registry's
meeting its goals to permanently inhabit the moon by 2015. |
| There are many firms on Earth right now trying to capitalize
on moon property sales, and all of them are using an extremely
liberal interpretation of something called the United Nations
Outer Space Treaty, which decreed in 1967 that no governments
can own property on other planetary bodies. |
| Since then, entrepreneurs have interpreted that to mean
that individuals and corporations are allowed to lay claim
to, well, anything you see in the night sky. One man has claimed
the moon all to himself, as well as all of the planets in
the solar system. Another man has declared ownership of the
sun and suggested that anyone who inhabits the moon will have
to pay to receive light and warmth. |
| We'll just let the attorneys sort that one out, okay? |
| Personally, I think I'd be more comfortable buying an acre
of land in the middle of nowhere. The entire state of Montana,
for example, has 800,000 residents—fewer than Fairfax County.
There's plenty of land out there that can probably be had
for a very small charge. |
| West Virginia and rural North Carolina are not quite so
far away, and provide us with the opportunity to actually
use the land we buy after the occasional long trip. Commuting
to the moon, however, is currently impossible. In the decades
to come, catching a rocket ship to the moon might be feasible,
but you can bet it won't be cheap. |
| Actually, this could be an opportunity for the Dulles Corridor.
Forget rail to Dulles. Imagine if we became the first locality
to build rail to the moon. We could bypass the entire U.S.
government and all its pesky regulations and demands, collect
funds from around the world, and then finance the project
partly through tolls. |
| Let's see … a one-way ticket could sell for a million bucks.
The moon is about 240,000 miles from Earth, after all, and
the rail cars would have to travel at about 5,000 miles per
hour to make the trip quick enough for a regular commute. |
| Maybe what we should be contemplating that with traffic
at a standstill around here, maybe commuting to the moon and
back isn't such a bad idea after all. |
| I think I'll hold onto my townhouse for the time being.
It's got a little grass, just enough space, and it's only
seven miles from the office. |
