• Question: Does anyone own the moon?

    Asked by eskimo97 to Mike, Pip, Tianfu, Tim, Tom on 27 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Tim Stephens

      Tim Stephens answered on 27 Jun 2012:

      It’s owned by all of humanity. No one person or country owns it.

    • Photo: Tom Lister

      Tom Lister answered on 27 Jun 2012:

      The USA got there first, so maybe they own it? Also, I think you can buy bits of land on the moon but I’m not sure how legitimate that is.

Comments

  • Photo: Tom

    Tom commented on :

    There is a very famous book called ‘The little prince’ (the original version has a lot of french in it, but you can get a good translation). It’s about a boy who lived on an asteroid and one day travelled to earth. On his journey, he came across a few ‘grown-ups’ living on neighbouring asteroids.

    After meeting a King who ‘reigns over’ the stars, he then goes on to meet a businessman who ‘owns’ the stars. He spends his whole life counting them:

    “And what good does it do you to own the stars?”

    “It does me the good of making me rich.”

    “And what good does it do you to be rich?”

    “It makes it possible for me to buy more stars, if any are discovered.”

    “How is it possible for one to own the stars?”

    “To whom do they belong?” the businessman retorted, peevishly.

    “I don’t know. To nobody.”

    “Then they belong to me, because I was the first person to think of it.”

    “Is that all that is necessary?”

    “Certainly. When you find a diamond that belongs to nobody, it is yours. When you discover an island that belongs to nobody, it is yours. When you get an idea before any one else, you take out a patent on it: it is yours. So with me: I own the stars, because nobody else before me ever thought of owning them.”

    “Yes, that is true,” said the little prince. “And what do you do with them?”

    “I administer them,” replied the businessman. “I count them and recount them. It is difficult. But I am a man who is naturally interested in matters of consequence.”

    The little prince was still not satisfied.

    “If I owned a silk scarf,” he said, “I could put it around my neck and take it away with me. If I owned a flower, I could pluck that flower and take it away with me. But you cannot pluck the stars from heaven . . .”

    “No. But I can put them in the bank.”

    “Whatever does that mean?”

    “That means that I write the number of my stars on a little paper. And then I put this paper in a drawer and lock it with a key.”

    “And that is all?”

    “That is enough,” said the businessman.

    “It is entertaining,” thought the little prince. “It is rather poetic. But it is of no great consequence.”