ABSTRACT - Land Claim Recognition (LCR)
To open the space frontier in our lifetime, we must get private enterprise to invest billions in space development, now! The last three decades prove government is not going to do it for us. The only way to interest investors in privately funded space settlement is to make settlement potentially very profitable. The most potentially valuable asset on the Moon and Mars is the land itself, as real estate. Someday in the future, once there is a true permanent settlement, regular commercial access, and a system of space property rights, Lunar and Martian real estate will acquire a multi-billion dollar value.
We need to get the U.S. to promise, now, that when and if anyone succeeds in establishing a permanent, privately funded space settlement and space line, U.S. courts will accept the settlement's claim to ownership of a substantial share of that land. That would allow the settlement to sell deeds to their Lunar land back on Earth. They could sell to those who intend to book passage on the settlement's ships and use their land, but also to the much, much larger market of land speculators and investors who hope to make a profit on Lunar land deeds, without ever, themselves, leaving Earth.
The Detailed Analysis provided on this website explains in a concise format the reasoning and proofs for the LCR concept. The SpaceSettlement.Org website discusses how and why that would work, especially the legalities and the economics. It includes a first draft of appropriate legislation, and a Q&A with the answers to 24 questions about the plan.