US company plans to sell land on the moon to Chinese

[emad]

US company plans to sell land on the moon to Chinese

A US company has set up operations in China to sell land on the moon for 289 yuan (37 dollars) an acre, cashing in on renewed interest in space travel after the successful five-day voyage of Shenzhou VI.

The so-called Lunar Embassy, touted as the first extraterrestrial estate agency, started operations Wednesday in Beijing, the China Daily reported.

It will issue customers a "certificate" that ensures property ownership, including rights to use the land and minerals up to three kilometresmiles) underground, said Li Jie, agent for the company in China.

"We define it as a kind of novelty gift with the potential of unlimited increase in value," said Li.

http://www.physorg.com/news7403.html

[ret5hd]

1. hmmmm...and here i thought...

you had to HAVE title to SELL title.

anybody want some land? I'll sell you THOUSANDS of acres...cheap!

[leveymg]

2. That land deal has about as much longterm value as all those T-bills

the Chinese banks have bought in recent years.

Or, do the Chinese think in terms of centuries and millenia? Maybe, we'd better brush-up on our Mandarin.

[kurth]

3. By international treaty no one can own the moon

Who owns the Moon for commercialization purposes?

No one does.

By international treaty it is understood to be free property. I do not believe that corporations or individuals may legally be allowed to own any part of it according to International Space Law.

http://www.astronomycafe.net/qadir/ask/a10913.html

[emad]

4. Some years ago a bunch of Russians tried to sell oil-drilling and

mineral exploration rights there....

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. Why do I get the impression that the Carlisle Group facilitated this

deal? Why would we sell anything as low as $37.00 an acre, unless it involved leverage for another deal?

[The Revolution]

6. Wait, you can sell something you don't own?

My entire understanding of economics has come crashing down.

I guess I'd better get on board before its too late. I'm hereby auctioning the entire planet of Jupiter plus all its satellites! Let's start the bidding at...oh I don't know how about $10.00?

Maybe I should put this on ebay... :)

[frogmarch]

7. Maybe

it's something like the name-a-star gimmicks in the US. For a small amount money, you can have a star named after you. Anyone who thinks "their" star is really theirs, or that it's "officially" named after them is nuts. It's just a tongue-in-cheek fun thing.

My daughter, an astrophysicist, named a star after me through one of the name-a-star thingies. I got an official-looking document that says:

Be it known that Star Number 071-317 with the Celestial Address of 21 Hrs. 25 Min. 17.94 Sec. and Declination of +38 degrees 51' 25.50" Epoch 2000, in the constellation Cygnus shall henceforth be known by the name

Trillian

May we all finally find the answer to the Great Question of Life, The Universe and Everything

(Edited for spelling.)