The Mars Land Price Scam

The Mars land price is a shady scheme in which you pay some company money for an acre of land on Mars. You receive a deed with your name as the titleholder, a map showing where your land is, and other goodies.

Unfortunately, the current international space treaty prohibits the sale of Martian land. This is a major roadblock to the exploration and settlement of Mars.

1. Acreage

If you want a bit of planet-side property for yourself or a loved one, it’s possible. David Aguilar, director of the Fiske Planetarium at the University of Colorado, is selling plots of land on the slopes of Olympus Mons for $20 an acre.

Aguilar says that he started the sales campaign to help his museum get out of financial trouble. It has gotten so popular that he’s selling more than 30 acres per day.

But buying land on Mars isn’t exactly legal, according to a 1967 international treaty that prohibits ownership of celestial objects.

You’d need to flile a claim to the United States Secretary of State under the treaty, bring survey crews from Earth and spend $40 billion on property research before you could own the land.

2. Deed

If you’re a space enthusiast and you want to get some real estate on Mars, you can actually do that. For $30 you can buy an acre of land on the Red Planet.

This is an offer from a company called Lunar Land, who have been selling property on other planets for decades. They even have a patent and copyright to do so.

But if you’re interested in buying land on Mars, you’ll need to know how the law of space works. It works the same as the law of oceans: nobody can “own” any part of the surface or bottom of any ocean, and no country can claim that land.

That’s because Mars is outside of our solar system, which means it’s beyond the reach of countries and other entities that can protect their interests in property. So, unless you’re a NASA astronaut and can convince a government to give you a piece of Mars, this isn’t something you should consider.

3. Map

If you purchase an acre of land on Mars, you will receive a deed and map showing your property’s precise location. All lands are registered in the Lunar Registry, which records where each parcel is located by quadrant, lot number, latitude and longitude coordinates.

You also get a photo book, a history of Mars and an official report on Martian exploration from NASA. The seller will send you this information free of charge with your order.

As you can see from the map below, many places on Mars are very different than we are used to here on Earth. This is because of the planet’s lack of a breathable atmosphere and low atmospheric pressure. It is important to understand these differences, as they can affect your ability to live on the planet. In the future, it is hoped that life will be possible on Mars with significant technological advancements and infrastructure development. However, for now, this is a very challenging prospect.

4. Information

A few companies sell land on Mars for a pretty penny. You pay them some money, then they send you a title deed and a map of the land you’ve just purchased. It’s a scam, and you should beware.

A number of scholars have proposed possible land use policies for Mars settlement drawing on terrestrial policies, as well as novel concepts. The most interesting proposal I found was a bounded first possession by landfall approach, which allows parties to occupy limited plots of Martian surface while limiting the amount of territory they can claim.

Other proposals include a Mars Secretariat as a conflict mediation method, an Earth-based planetary park system, and a law-enforcement model for ensuring fairness in claiming or using valuable Martian lands. All of these are a lot more impressive than the typical letter to a claims office and deserve a closer look. However, I’d have to say that the best approach is the one that addresses all assessment criteria in a meaningful manner, especially environmental and social justice.