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The man who owns the moon

If you ask Dennis Hope, he'll tell you he's the wealthiest person on the planet—indeed, he'll let you know he's the wealthiest person in the universe. Why? Because, in his opinion, he owns the majority of it.

If you ask Dennis Hope, he'll tell you he's the wealthiest person on the planet—indeed, he'll let you know he's the wealthiest person in the universe. Why? Because, in his opinion, he owns the majority of it.

 

Hope had been unemployed for approximately a year at the time, though he'd make a fine property owner and could make a fortune managing real estate in the early 1980s. When he gazed out the window, he saw more unclaimed property than he could imagine, even the moon. He remembered something from a political science class in college: the 1967 United Nations Outer Space Treaty said that no country could control the moon, but it did not mention individuals.

 

Hope claimed possession of the moon in a letter to the United Nations, asking the organization to come up with a legal explanation why one individual could not claim ownership of the moon.

 

 

He never received a response.

"I sent the UN a statement of ownership explaining my intent to subdivide and sell the moon and have never received a response," he claims. "The pact contains a flaw: it does not apply to individuals."

 

He's sold more than 611 million acres of lunar acreage since then. Individual one-acre lots cost $19.95 ($36.50 with a "lunar tax" and the deed's shipping and handling), with reductions available for bigger plots.

 

He allegedly sold 2.66 million acres of "country-sized" chunk of property for $250,000. Three prior presidents have bought lunar plots from him (George H.W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan).

 

 

He's the president of the Galactic Government, a democratic republic that represents the moon's landowners and some of his other holdings (he also claimed Mercury, Mars, Venus, Jupiter's moon Io, and Pluto). Pluto can be purchased in its entirety for $250,000.

The United Nations never responded, according to Tanja Masson-Zwaan, president of the International Institute of Space Law, because the treaty applies to both countries and their residents, she told National Geographic

In 2009, she told the magazine, "What [Hope] is doing does not allow anyone who buys bits of paper the right to own the moon." Despite this, Hope appears to be selling acre plots on the moon at an unstoppable rate.

 

The new documentary "Lunarcy!" follows people who have dedicated their lives to Earth's only natural satellite and features Hope and other moon-fanatics.

 

There's Alan Bean, an astronaut-turned-artist who paints moonscapes and imprints them with the boots he wore as the fourth man to walk on the moon; Christopher Carson, a 20-something Texan who is determined to be the first man to leave Earth, move to the moon, and never return; and Hope, who has made a small fortune selling the moon despite not knowing how to convert the moon's "Delta" currency into American dollars.

 

The new documentary "Lunarcy!" follows people who have dedicated their lives to Earth's only natural satellite and features Hope and other moon-fanatics.

 

 

When you talk to Hope, you can tell he's serious: he's met with global leaders and tried to get his administration recognized by the International Monetary Fund (so Deltas can be traded for Earth currency in international markets). Hope threatened China's government when they claimed they would seek to encroach on his land by building a lunar base.

 

 

 

Hope claims that the moon's helium-3 deposits are worth more than $6 quadrillion and that he and his property owners, numbering in the thousands, own it all. On Earth, helium-3 is employed in nuclear fusion research and costs around $125,000 per ounce.

 

"We wrote a letter to China's president in response to their announcement that they planned to be on the moon by 2012, stating we didn't mind as long as they had a licensing arrangement with us. Their craft would not be able to reach the moon otherwise, "Hope expresses herself.

 

He refused to say how he intended to prevent a country or individual from traveling to the moon.

 

"Right now, we can ban any craft from coming to our properties," he says. "Exploration is fine with us, but anyone who constructs anything permanent on the property does not own it.

 

 

That would be the equivalent of Canada building a facility in the United States without first seeking permission. The authorities would be furious, just as we would be if someone attempted to build on the moon."

 

While he opposes others mining the moon, he recognizes its historical significance. He's set up 23 "celestial reserves" on the moon, including the landing sites of the Apollo missions and the two polar areas, which store most of the moon's water. 

 

According to him, a group tried to acquire the moon's north pole from him for $50 million in 2011, but he turned down the offer.

 

"I checked that they had the funds to do it," he says, "but we want to make sure that people have what they need to live at an affordable price."

"Lunarcy!" has played at several prestigious film festivals, including the Toronto International Film Festival and South By Southwest. 

 

On April 3, Epix will broadcast it for the first time to a broader audience. Hope claims that sales of lunar plots have grown by roughly 30% since the documentary was completed.

 

He claims that the moment will soon come for those landowners to reap the benefits of their investment. The Galactic Government is considering constructing a pyramid-shaped moon city with a two-mile by two-mile base. He wants to be the first individual to fly there.