When Yana Oselkin turned 28 in September, a brother bought her an unusual birthday gift."He got me an acre on the moon, with an Earth-facing view," the Manhattan-based dentist recalled recently. "I thought he was kidding."Oselkin now says she is a "proud moon owner" but views her property mostly as a novelty. She has no imminent plans to leave New York, let alone planet Earth.However, others take the lunar real estate business seriously. Dennis Hope, a Nevada-based entrepreneur who sells lunar property through his company, the Lunar Embassy, claims to own the entire moon and eight other celestial bodies in the solar system. He says he has sold 410 million acres on the moon and properties on Mars, Venus and one of the moons of Jupiter to nearly 2.5 million people. Hope recently formed a "galactic government," naming himself interim president. He expects the lunar property owners to ratify a newly drafted constitution. Hope has six "ambassadors," who sell property on his behalf, and 27 additional "realty agents" scattered around the world.He claims that they make 1,500 sales a day, selling individual plots over the Internet for $19.99 an acre, not including the $1.50 lunar tax."I take this as seriously as any other company," said Hope, who calls himself "the head cheese." "Our claim is as valid as any other claim of land."

Hope says he claimed the moon in 1980 as an uninhabited land with an "intent to occupy." His legal team supports his ownership claim under a loophole in the 1967 U.N. Outer Space Treaty, drafted during the Cold War space race. Article II of the treaty states that "outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty." Hope said the treaty says nothing about individual ownership.

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I bet someone allready grabbed the face on mars, but I dont think anyone has claimed the asteroid belt?? I have an intent to occupy the asteroid belt, really I do, therefore I will calim it, as of now I own the asteroid belt and all of its minerals.

oookay...now i'm goin to buy myself a plot of land underneath the Atlantic Ocean...or maybe a few acres of earth's sky...then i'll invest in earth's inner core...

This is looney! Maybe he will get shut down, I don't see how you can own the moon or something without even being there, let alone the whole race has not been there frequently. Someone should buy all of Pluto, I would buy Uranus (NOT A PUN)

I hope the people investing in that land know they cant possibly be able to keep it. Cmon, plz!

Just because you see it, doesn't mean you own it.

What exactly would he benefit off this? He wouldn't benefit anything in his lifetime. It's merely a fantasy. It should belong to our budding space programs, since they have a more better plan for the moon.

If he's trying to brag about owning the moon than, he's as looney as people say. I think it's a bit selfish of him. I'm not saying I want a piece of moon. If I wanted a piece of that moon I'd buy it off him, but since I disagree with his intentions I don't want a piece of it. Now would you?

I'd give him an incentive or two that'll push his wants further away. I mean C'MON people, get a grip of reality, and get your reality a check. To own something that is not really a familiar territory to anyone except the astronauts who landed on it, would be seriously dellusional.

Something as extravagant as that should have the World's opinion before his. Since we all look at it, it should be public domain.

Fine if he wants a piece of that moon, I call the rest of the universe. Now I SAY IT'S WORTH $2.

What the .... oh... I'm buying that diamond star thingy...

This is the same type of BS that resulted in people getting stars named after them. Put simply, nobody can buy pieces of land on the Moon. This guy and his legal team can waffle on until doomsday, but he is just ripping people off.

when it comes to space settlement, i can't just see the UN or whoever telling him to go to hell:) either that, or someone declares war on his planet, lands a probe, calls it an occupying force and then takes control (or however taking over countries is done)

yeah i'll have a piece moon but i whant mine free. It doesn't belong to nobody so we should all get a freebee

I hereby declare that I own the Universe . You shall just have to take my word for it

It's like the companies that sell stars...

Or public places. I know that the Santa Claus house in North Pole sells square inches of it's property.

Had a friend who actually went one time to clean it and they had to figure out what to do about that.

How the hell did he gain possession of it in the first place? Can you actaully live there if it was possible or is it just for show? Why are we selling parts of a planet when we can't even look after our own?