When you hear the phrase “top 10 people who claim ownership of celestial bodies,” you might picture sci‑fi villains or eccentric billionaires, but the reality is a surprisingly eclectic mix of lawyers, dreamers, and even a mischievous club of elves. From a Chilean attorney who registered the Moon as his property to a Spanish woman selling square‑meter plots of the Sun on eBay, these ten characters have taken the concept of space real‑estate to literal extremes.
Why the Top 10 People Chase Space Real Estate
Each claimant was driven by a unique blend of personal ambition, legal curiosity, or plain old stubbornness. Some wanted to join exclusive societies, others hoped to cash in on a future interplanetary gold rush, and a few simply wanted to prove a point that the final frontier could be owned—at least on paper.
10 Jenaro Gajardo Vera
In 1953, a 34‑year‑old Chilean attorney and part‑time composer named Jenaro Gajardo Vera found himself turned away from a social club because he lacked any real‑world property. While leaving the Club Unión Social, he glanced up at the Moon and thought, “No one actually owns that.” Determined, he marched to the national property registry and filed paperwork to list the Moon as his own parcel.
The clerk warned him that registering the Moon might earn him a reputation for folly, but Gajardo was undeterred. Chilean law required the claim to be published three times in an official journal, which he dutifully did. No one contested his filing, and by September 1954 he paid a modest 42 pesos, receiving a certificate that officially named him owner of the Moon.
Armed with that document, he marched back to the club and was finally admitted as a member. Years later, just before the historic 1969 Apollo 11 landing, Gajardo sent a formal accusation to the United States, alleging trespass on his lunar property and even hinted at legal action.
Legend has it that President Nixon later sent a telegram asking permission before the astronauts set foot on what Gajardo considered “his” Moon—a story that remains unverified. Adding to the absurdity, the Chilean tax authority once claimed he owed lunar taxes; Gajardo replied that he could not assess the Moon’s value and invited the auditors to meet him there, a meeting that never happened.
Gajardo passed away on June 29 1998, reportedly bequeathing the Moon to all Chileans. As of 2005, his granddaughter Ivonne Gajardo Quezada continued to assert the family’s lunar claim.
9 Dennis Hope
Dennis Hope entered the arena in the 1980s after realizing that the 1967 United Nations Outer Space Treaty barred nations—not private individuals—from laying claim to space. He seized the loophole and announced ownership of Earth’s Moon, Jupiter’s moon Io, and several inner planets, including Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Pluto.
Hope began selling lunar acreage at $19.95 per acre, with a surcharge for “lunar tax, shipping, and handling” that lifted the price to $36.50 per acre. He offered volume discounts and once sold a staggering 2.66 million acres—about the size of a small country—for $250,000. He deliberately avoids selling specific lunar landmarks and even turned down a $50 million offer from a group eager to buy the Moon’s north pole.
Over the years, Hope claims to have netted more than $11 million from over six million customers, boasting a roster that includes media icons like Barbara Walters and Tom Cruise, as well as former U.S. presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush. He focuses on the Moon because his maps for the other bodies are still a work in progress, though he teases that a $250,000 investment could secure the entire surface of Pluto.
Hope also founded the so‑called Galactic Government, a self‑styled democratic republic whose citizens are his lunar landowners. The fledgling nation even minted its own currency, the “delta,” which Hope has tried to have recognized by the International Monetary Fund and various governments. In a bizarre twist, a rival claimant once sent Hope an energy bill for using the Sun; Hope replied that the sender should simply switch the Sun off.
8 Greg Nemitz
The near‑Earth asteroid 433 Eros, first spotted on August 13 1898 by astronomers Gustav Witt and Auguste Charlois, earned its place in history as the first asteroid orbited—and later landed upon—by a spacecraft. NASA’s NEAR probe performed the orbit in February 2000 and touched down in February 2001.
When the probe touched the asteroid, Greg Nemitz proclaimed the rocky body his private property, arguing that because neither Witt nor Charlois ever filed a claim, he was the first legitimate owner. He promptly mailed NASA a “parking bill” of $20 for occupying “space 29” in his asteroid parking lot, calculated at 20 cents per year for a century.
NASA refused to pay, and the dispute escalated to court, where the space agency ultimately prevailed, rejecting Nemitz’s claim to the celestial rock.
7 Adam Ismail, Mustafa Khalil, And Abdullah Al‑Umari
In 1997, three Yemeni gentlemen—Adam Ismail, Mustafa Khalil, and Abdullah al‑Umari—filed a lawsuit against NASA after the agency’s Sojournor rover set foot on Mars. The trio asserted that they descended from the Himyarite and Sabaean tribes, ancient Arabian peoples who, according to their claim, had erected seven temples dedicated to the seven known planets, including Mars, as sacred gateways to their god.
They insisted they possessed the proper documentation to cement their claim over the Red Planet and presented the case to Yemen’s national prosecutor, who dismissed it and even threatened imprisonment. Undeterred, the men abandoned the lawsuit but continued to market Martian parcels for $2 per square mile.
6 Phillip Davies
When President Obama signed the U.S. Space Act in 2015, it granted American companies the right to keep any resources they extracted from celestial bodies. This legislative shift inspired Dr. Phillip Davies, a physician from Hampshire, UK, to proclaim that the existing 1967 UN Space Treaty was outdated and that he would stake a claim on Mars to pre‑empt any other individual or nation.
To underscore his claim, Davies fired a laser beam at the Martian surface, asserting that the light would warm the planet and improve its atmosphere, thereby “enhancing” any potential life. He also began selling tiny plots for a single cent each, attracting roughly 13 000 supporters who bought a piece of his imagined Martian estate.
Davies has announced that once his community reaches a critical mass, he intends to hand over his Martian claim to the United Nations, framing his venture as a stepping stone toward a globally shared future on the Red Planet.
5 Maria Angeles Duran
Spanish entrepreneur Maria Angeles Duran made headlines in 2010 when she announced ownership of the Sun itself. Inspired by Dennis Hope’s lunar empire, she launched an eBay storefront in 2013 selling one‑square‑meter (approximately 11 ft²) slices of the star for a modest €1 each. Buyers received a certificate of ownership, though no precise coordinates were ever disclosed.
eBay quickly suspended her account, arguing that the Sun could not be sold as a tangible good. Duran fought back, hiring lawyers and filing a complaint that claimed she was merely selling a natural resource—comparable to water or wind—that other vendors were allowed to market.
Her legal battle centered on whether the 1967 UN Space Treaty prohibited individuals from claiming celestial bodies. The court ultimately sidestepped the treaty question, focusing instead on whether Duran had violated eBay’s terms by offering intangible assets.
4 Sylvio Langevin
Canadian litigator Sylvio Langevin took the concept of space ownership to the extreme in 2012, filing a lawsuit that claimed he possessed the entire solar system—including every planet, four of Jupiter’s moons, and even the vacuum that separates them. He argued that only a divine being could contest his claim, effectively positioning himself as the supreme proprietor of all cosmic real estate.
Langevin was notorious for filing frivolous suits; between 2001 and 2012 he lodged more than 45 lawsuits. In 2009 a court barred him from initiating any further actions without explicit permission after he pursued a baseless $1 billion claim. Some speculate that his 2012 filing was a strategic move to test the limits of that injunction.
3 James Thomas Mangan
On the evening of December 20 1948, James Thomas Mangan declared the entire expanse of space his personal domain, dubbing himself its “first representative.” He rushed to the Cook County, Illinois recorder of deeds, where a judge eventually ruled in his favor, allowing him to register a micronation called the “Celestial Republic.”
Mangan then sent letters to the United Nations and to the secretaries of state in all 50 U.S. states, requesting official recognition of his sovereign claim. While the UN politely declined, Mangan unfurled his flag in front of its New York headquarters and began issuing a unique currency called the “Celeston.” He also mailed passports and coins to astronauts, promising them citizenship in his interstellar nation.
Although he initially advertised Earth‑sized plots of space for just $1 each, he refunded anyone who actually tried to purchase a parcel. Mangan passed away in 1970, bequeathing his celestial charter to his descendants.
2 Martin Juergens
Martin Juergens asserts that the Moon was gifted to his family by King Frederick the Great in the mid‑18th century. According to Juergens, the Prussian monarch frequently consulted a local healer—one of Juergens’ ancestors—who treated the king’s gout and blessed him, contributing to Frederick’s victories in the Seven Years’ War.
In gratitude, Frederick allegedly presented the Moon to the healer’s lineage, decreeing that every child born into the family would retain ownership for as long as Earth existed. Juergens has used this historic claim to challenge Dennis Hope’s lunar empire, though Hope dismissed the story, noting the absence of any legal paperwork to substantiate Juergens’ claim.
Juergens says the original decree, dated July 15 1756, was even captured on film by several contemporary crews. While he has yet to sell any lunar plots, many suspect his public challenge is a strategic move aimed at curbing Hope’s commercial exploitation of the Moon.
1 The Elves’, Gnomes’, And Little Men’s Science Fiction, Chowder, And Marching Society
In February 1952, a quirky collective known as the Elves’, Gnomes’, and Little Men’s Science Fiction, Chowder, and Marching Society—yes, that’s their full, unabashedly whimsical name—announced a claim on a portion of the Moon after allegedly discovering deposits of a mineral called sylvanite.
The Berkeley‑based science‑fiction club wrote to the United Nations, requesting a patent and title for their lunar parcel, offering to surrender 90 percent of any mining profits to the UN in exchange. Their letters also reached President Harry Truman and various media outlets, sparking a brief wave of publicity.
The stunt was never meant to be taken seriously; it was primarily a fundraising gimmick. Nonetheless, the story captured public imagination, and while the UN’s legal chief, Oscar Schachter, clarified that the organization lacked jurisdiction to grant lunar titles, the society’s claim remains a delightful footnote in the annals of space‑law eccentricities.