article can be found
here (http://www.space.com/news/moon_valentines_020214.html)

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) -- Romanian lovers have gone lunatic. For Valentine's Day, sweethearts are giving each other plots of land on the moon.

"Chocolates get eaten. Flowers wilt in three days. The crystal glass gets dusty and then breaks. But the moon is forever," said Adi Dragan, who's pitching the idea as the ultimate romantic gift -- and donating the proceeds to his wife's foundation for the physically disabled.

Dragan, 31, a former advertising executive, is authorized by the U.S.-based Lunar Embassy to sell 177-acre parcels of moon land for $49, half the average monthly salary in Romania.

The extraterrestrial real estate business took off in 1996, when Lunar Embassy founder Dennis Hope, a Nevada entrepreneur, claimed to have found a loophole in the 1967 U.N. Outer Space Treaty that lets him legally sell pieces of the moon.

The moon has sold well in Europe, even though few if any buyers can ever hope to set foot on their land.



I don't really see how they sell something the nobody actually owns. Hell, shouldn't we own it, since we put our flag on it!

Never forget the golden rule. The one with the most gold rules.

Bah. Damn them capitalists :-)

That said...'soon' we're going to need REAL provisions for aquistation and reselling of outer space bodies.

I mean what is the commerical drive if there is no incentive of ownership and profit?

Just think about ALL of the minerals that are in asteroids past mars...

I purchased Europa (Moon of Jupiter that's bigger than our moon and has an ocean under a mile or so of ice) on the internet last year. Cost me a bundle ($250!!!)

I figure when Nasa starts landing there, I can sell minerals and such and make a killing. Not to mention, it's the likeliest candidate in that part of the solar system to support life or get terraformed.

http://www.snacktrays.org/images/EuropaDeed.jpg


That's all mine now. Just gotta figure out what to do with it.

Originally posted by TheFrog
I purchased Europa (Moon of Jupiter that's bigger than our moon and has an ocean under a mile or so of ice) on the internet last year. Cost me a bundle ($250!!!)

I figure when Nasa starts landing there, I can sell minerals and such and make a killing. Not to mention, it's the likeliest candidate in that part of the solar system to support life or get terraformed.

c:\dat\EuropaDeed.jpg


That's all mine now. Just gotta figure out what to do with it.


and you can tax the hell out of them for landing there, then, put a landing fee on them!

Yeah...but I'll cut them a little slack when they figure out how to get the stuff out of there without being crushed to death by the giant ice squid that live in the subsurface water. 170 feet of baggy head and nasty tentacle. Boy are they in for a surprise. I think I'll wait and tell them afterward.

I figure that's worth, what? 15% reduction in the tarriff?


;)

maynbe i could get my parents to go on the trip to the moon. hopefully they won't come back

Frog I definately agree on the life part...but terraform?

Do you know the miniscule amount of heat that gets to Europa?

You are, of course, correct, Manu. I should have said ‘Study of new life with possible transplanting of certain cold-hardy life’ in stead of terraforming. Obviously the only thing in the solar system even remotely able to be terraformed would be Mars. It’s just intriguing that there could be a decent aquasphere under that ice on Europa. Heck, tow it into orbit around Mars! (Yeah, we can do that… :rolleyes: ) It’ll warm up and maybe get a decent atmosphere going too! Mars could use a real moon. Phobos and whatsit are just hunks of irregular rock.

haha, yeah, right on. It is amazing to think that things in our solarsystem may be full of microscopic life, let alone something macroscopic!

An interesting study someone was saying should be done on mars...a satelite study for underground oil...

If there is crude oil in the martian subsurface, it is indictive of a once LARGELY macroscopic species...though I find that unlikely...who knows!

The interesting thing of mars is the indications of a massive impact that really left the planet in a state of turmoil.

Also, the rotational axis shifts between 40 degrees and abotu 4 degress every 10 million years or something...making life hard to sustain.

I have been requested by sources I cannot name to retract my statement of ownership of the Jupiter’s moon, Europa. This statement was in no way coerced by the CIA or agents of NASA. Further my claim that there is already known life in the oceans of Europa is also mere speculation. Thank you for your kind attention. I have to go away now…the nice men in the suits are taking me to their van.

;)

Seriously, I doubt there's anything there, either Mars or Europa. As far as using Mars as a nice spot to live- we can change a lot of that. There's been talk in the last couple of years about correcting the Earth’s small orbital drift by maneuvering an asteroid into an orbit that takes it on a close pass to us every 100 years or so. That would exert just enough gravity of its own to keep us where we needed to be. Why not maneuver one to settle the axial wobble of Mars a bit? Go ahead and use some thermal devices to melt some of those ice caps, and seed some blue-green algae in the right spots…who knows? Might get a decent spot to grow some trees and a new ocean to for the fish!

I agree we cna teraform and adapt mars, but doubt we can fix the axial wobble. Ours is caused by a natural slowing of our spin, Mars' wobble is mostly caused by the immense tug of jupiter vs. the sun.