TheMartians.org … @JoinTheMartians
– what are we doing here? … read on …
** An Ethical Campaign and very Low Prices: Mars really is the “Heritage of Humankind” **
Who are The Martians?
Well…it’s us!… we have engineered a legally robust claim to factual possession of land on Planet Mars … and no, this is not another silly spurious claim to celestial land. It took months of discussions with world expert space lawyers. After legal validation, It required mathematical verification of the persistent targeting of Mars using lasers of enormous power and accuracy. International media, including The Times, New Yorker and BBC, have extensively covered our evolving Mars Land Claim and the Peace Campaign with which it is associated…. and we are just getting started! We recently commissioned expert independent legal analysis of our claim/proposal. Go to our LEGAL section if you want to see that report and our resultant strategy documents. Essentially, the legal opinion states that our actions are legal, including those which can be argued to represent ‘Factual Possession’ of land on Mars. Within current law, we cannot yet convert that possession into ownership (which is the usual route for land on Earth) … but the expert opinion states that if/when the law was to become tolerant of such celestial property rights (we are sure it will, within the next 150 years), our claim should rightly be first-in-line for consideration! So, watch this space, or better still, for just 1 CENT PER 2 ACRES, come and JOIN THE MARTIANS!We are people from every Country on Earth (not just current space-faring nations). We believe that celestial land in our Solar System is, as stated in the Outer Space Treaty 1967 (OST), the “province of mankind” (humankind!!). We also agree that such celestial land & resources could be regarded as the “common heritage of all mankind” … which might imply a need for governed “equitable sharing” of the substance and the benefits from use. But, we also believe in vibrant and responsible commerce. It is such exploitation which will drive space exploration and ultimately provide benefit to humanity and planet Earth. So we believe that governance should be light touch and pro-business … a savvy space-user group (not a sagging UN committee). The full realisation of our claim (whenever the law permits) will deliver vibrant, responsible space commerce, equitable sharing of benefits, as well as peace and stability.
Our claim to actual possession of the land on Mars is based on our persistent actions using powerful Earth-based lasers targeting Mars to produce an ongoing small beneficial influence. These actions are back up by well formed administrative plans for governance and control (see our Science and Legal sections).
Through our claim to celestial land on Mars, we are not just providing wealth and influence to our co-claimants’ future family descendants … we are using the claim to trigger a vital ‘top-up’ to the Outer Space Treaty. You see, we love the Treaty for its strength against nuclear weaponization of space, but because it has not been updated in over 50 years, it is otherwise not particularly fit for purpose … it provides no framework for space commerce. Hence the USA has finally got fed up with it all and drafted it’s own space law which allows celestial mining and the owning/selling of celestial resources. We agree that this is a good Space Law for USA and will encourage vibrant space commerce/mining in the near future. However, this law (and all the other national laws that will follow), rips right into the Outer Space Treaty. It is now marginalized and in danger of losing all influence, including the vital block to nuclear weaponization. The Artemis Accords provide only a partial solution where significant risk remains. Space Law MUST be updated … soon! It has become a truly URGENT matter. The old Treaty now needs additional reinforcement and applicability. It would be risky to open this valuable treaty so better to push for an enhancement in the form of an additional limited ‘top-up treaty’ … the articles of which could successfully deal with weaponization, space debris, commercial ventures and perhaps even some limited private appropriation.
We have campaigned COPUOS (UN) for the last 10 years to update the OST … nothing! So we conjured the plan for a legitimate claim of possession of planet Mars. Ok, so this might actually lead, in future, to our co-claimants (or their descendants) gaining ownership of huge chunks of land on Mars. WOW! .. but how can a claim to land on Mars ever deliver peace and stability via an update to space law? Read on …
Surely this is just legal play & triviality?... it can't have real impact ... can it?
1. Our claim to celestial land may sound super far fetched…. but please click below to see how our claim is actually well founded in current international law and has caught the interest of several leading world experts in space law. This Martian land claim has been maintained for 11+ years (now Summer 2021).The claim itself sits well compared to the legal requirements to successfully claim difficult, distant unregistered land ON EARTH.
But to an extent we are comparing apples with pears … on Earth we have ‘ownable’ land (terra nullius) but in space it is currently regarded as a global commons (res communis). But, we do expect that space law (which is less than 60 years old) will evolve to tolerate/encourage private property rights in space, including land ownership. This might take 150 years, whenever a significant human celestial settlement might be feasible. Once the law can accommodate such claims, our claim should be first-in-line for consideration (independent expert legal opinion agrees with this). In this circumstance it is reasonable to expect similar criteria to be legally applied in the assessment of a claim’s eligibility to gain titled ownership. Our membership will be ready for this (Note: we can increase the strength of our claim just by building a large membership … currently its 180,000 but we aim to exceed 5 Million).
We know its important to pay heed to the underlying theme within the OST … that celestial land is for us all to share equitably. Now we can all argue what equitable really means when it comes to the costs involved in celestial mining …. but we provide a very low cost opportunity for people of all nations to gain a credible claim to huge amounts of Martian land. Just $18 can now get you a legitimate, recorded claim (of factual possession) for 35 Sq Km of land on Mars. Companies with more advanced commercial plans can claim specific areas for modest fees via our sales team. In order to be assured of equitable representation by people from EVERY nation within our communal claim (irrespective of space-faring capability or wealth), there are many thousands of free voucher codes which have been issued to national governments and media outlets to provide to their nationals for free claim certificates.
We now also include a further two claims for all our fellow Martians….
2. Whilst we do expect that in future it will become acceptable/inevitable to permit ownership of celestial land, we recognize that in the shorter term it may be legally tortuous to gain ownership of Mars land for our fellow claimants. So, for the last 2 years we have piggy-backed on the legal text of the US Space Act. This act allows space miners to obtain resources in-situ on a planet or asteroid. Obtaining means to acquire possession. This then allows them to own, use, transport or sell the resource.
It appears that the act or obtaining (=gaining possession) could be achieved in advance of going to the planet to mine the resources (given the huge cost of planning for a celestial mining mission).
Thus, based on our plans for governance, control, resource use and extraction, together with our persistent Mars-laser actions, we have submitted claims to UN and US/UK governments which claim possession of the Martian lands and demand priority rights to resources in situ and therefore also the rights to own, use, transport and sell these resources.
3. We also make a further separate claim… modeled on the ITU allocation of GEO satellite slots, we claim priority rights to two million geo-spatial mining/homesteading slots (most are varying from 9-35 sq km in size), positioned on Martian land as per “Mars-for-Sale: Globe 1” found in our Media section.
For all three claims (land, resources, geo-spatial slots), we demand a reasonable timelag for preparation/implementation. We believe that almost 200 years will be required before manned mining installations and homesteading is safely feasible. For current nationals of non space-faring developing countries, this will take longer. Thus we demand that our rights to those claimed lands, resources and mining slots remain valid until Year 2500. Our claim holders must show evidence of human settlement or resource usage by 2500 in order to maintain possession and the right to ownership.
We have sought expert legal advice on this matter. It rather mirrors the time-lag awarded to parties successful in gaining award of a GEO orbit slot (for satellite communications use) from ITU. They have 5 years to utilize the slot awarded.
Well Mars, at closest approach to Earth, is 1400 X further away from Earth than those orbital slots. Yet we don’t demand 1400 X 5yrs to fully implement our homesteading/mining plans .. just almost 100 X 5yrs. We think the year 2500 is a safe but competitive target. See Mars2500.com
There are plenty of top space lawyers (world experts included) who are very interested in our claim and the future legal implications it might have (see also the Mars Prize competition involving some elite space-law judges). World media are paying more and more attention and we aim to ramp that up through later 2021. We are currently awaiting a decision at the European Court of Human Right (having already come through the UK High courts with credibility enhanced) . We are trying to compel the UK Government to present the problem of our claim to COPUOS (UN). It is unlikely that ECtHR will deliver a successful result for us … but we felt it was important to take that route initially. There are many more routes to the UN (lobbying of individual state delegations starts soon). We are hoping to gain favourable understanding of our claim/proposal within the membership of COPUOS, such that we can either influence changes in the law in our favour or instigate some cohesive effort to build new law upon the old OST. Interestingly, should the UN require it, the PCA (Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague) has advised in writing that it stands ready to handle our claim.
The Martians aim to update and save the Outer Space Treaty - and to Save us all!
So are we simply greedy for money and land? … certainly not.The modest fee required to gain a celestial land claim (now just $18) is widely affordable throughout the world (more people living in India can afford this than US citizens). This satisfies the “province of mankind” message in the OST and also the “equitable sharing” stated in the Moon Treaty.
We need these small fees, added together, to challenge effectively in an International Court. We think we can do it with just $100,000 (but we recognize that the recent China V Philippines land dispute cost over $60 Million in the PCA).
So we are not in it just for money. We do want to agitate the UN sufficient to sting it into updating the only law that protects us from NUKES in Space.
Just think how dangerous it would be if several nations were to have such weapons aiming down at us. Think how much easier the impersonal use of such distant weapons might be compared to launching from national land. Also remember why, in 1965-1966, the USA pushed hardest to get the Space Treaty agreed: they realized that if both they and the Russians put nuclear weapons in space it would be a disaster; there could be no safe stand-off or peaceful equilibrium. Why?…because of the overwhelming benefit of being first to strike. From an orbital position over target, a first strike would have destroyed all opposition before an effective nuclear response could be initiated. That fact remains true today. Once nukes are up there, above our heads, it will be difficult to get rid of them … they will pose a huge threat to us all. Don’t let it happen!
We want that possibility to be absolutely minimized. A strong, modern, fit-for-purpose Space Treaty is what we need. We also need a nimble space regulatory body which is pro-commerce (to sign off new mining contracts) yet still protective of wider celestial lands.
So, what does the full realisation of our claim look like?…
Well, first we must state clearly that it all does not fall on our shoulders to deliver a favourable change in the law. We will certainly try to effect this via individualized lobbying of members at COPUOS.
BUT, would-be co-claimants must realise that we do all this not because we are keenly pro-appropriation, rather it is that we think celestial property rights are ultimately inevitable and we want to be ready with an inclusive solution that also appeals strongly to commerce. We call this ‘Inclusivity built upon Exclusivity.’
So, it may happen sooner but we reckon it could be 150 years before space law evolves towards tolerance of celestial land ownership (thus benefiting the family descendants of our co-claimants). We need an update to space law much sooner than that!
So, the progression of our claim brings three opportunities to effect a beautifully ratified ‘top-up treaty’ …
First, we will use world media attention to stress the urgent need for additional ‘hard’ space law, in order to prevent humanity’s sleepwalking towards aggressive weaponization of the orbital space just 350 km above our heads.
Second, the provisions within our ‘Application for First Registration’ (sent to UN) allows for the UN (conditional upon ratification of a new top-up treaty) to ‘buy back’ every claim for a nominal fee until 2037 or celestial land title registration (whichever comes first). This nominal fee was just $1000 in 2017, but is doubling biennially, such that by 10.10.2037 (70th anniversary OST) it will become $1Million to each co-claimant.
Third, our legal strategy explains how the full realisation of our claim will also lead to ratification of the top-up treaty (such ratification will be a pre-requisite for space-faring nations seeking representation on the governing space-user group). How will this work?…
This third opportunity comes only when our communal claim has been successfully registered into ownership. Our ‘Application for First registration of all Land on Mars’ states that the legal land title must go to ‘All Mankind’ (i.e. humanity … to be held in trust by a UN committee); the beneficial ownership title must go to all our co-claimants – this will then be divided into beneficial rights to plots, varying from 9 to 35 Sq Km, and allocated to each claimant by random lottery … except for the ‘Preference Claims’ which are linked to an agreed specific plot.
A pro-business space user group is defined as the responsible body for governance of land exploitation (including waste and debris control/management). In order to have representation within this user group, a space faring nation must ratify the new ‘top-up space treaty.’
Celestial mining contracts are approved via the user group … the mining companies keep all the profits less tax to their parent nation and a ground-rent payment to the affected claimant/beneficiary). These affected claimants must part-share (half) this ground-rent payment with all other claimants/beneficiaries. Thus in this manner the exploitative mining venture results in predictable business outcomes and also delivers equitable financial benefit to all nationals/nations (all 195 nations are equitably represented in the numbers of claimants).
In this manner, our co-claimants (or more likely their family descendants) obtain massive rewards from their tiny original ‘investment,’ and space commerce should be vibrant and responsible, with the assurance of peace and stability that comes from a ratified ‘top-up space treaty.’
If you dont feel like spending $9 on a valid Mars Land Claim…
please consider following our Save The Space Treaty campaign