No one can sell you title to land on the Moon. Article II of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty says the Moon "is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means." Title needs a government to record and enforce it, and no government can do that on the Moon.
What you can buy is a document. Novelty certificates cost about $15 to $60. A Red Homestead claim costs $39 and gives you a surveyed parcel, a public record and a 19-document claim file. It is a forward claim and a collectible, and we say so on every page.
What the law says
The Outer Space Treaty opened for signature on 27 January 1967 and came into force on 10 October 1967. More than 115 countries are parties, including the United States, Russia, China, India and Japan. Two articles decide the land question.
Article II bars any country from claiming the Moon or any other celestial body, by declaring it, by occupying it, or "by any other means." Planting a flag does not count. Building a base does not count.
Article VI makes each country answerable for what its citizens and companies do in space. Private activity needs "authorization and continuing supervision" from a government. That matters for land because private property only exists where a government records it and a court will enforce it. On Earth that is a county recorder or a land office. On the Moon, every government that could play that role has agreed not to.
A second treaty, the 1979 Moon Agreement, went further and called the Moon and its resources "the common heritage of mankind." It never caught on. Fewer than 20 countries joined, none of them the United States, Russia or China, and Saudi Arabia left it in January 2024.
Since 2015 the law has moved on resources, not land. A US law from that year lets American citizens possess, own, transport, use and sell space resources they extract (51 U.S.C. § 51303), and the same law says the United States does not claim sovereignty or ownership of any celestial body. Luxembourg (2017), the United Arab Emirates (2019) and Japan (2021) passed similar resource laws. The Artemis Accords, signed by 76 countries as of September 2026, say that extracting resources is not by itself national appropriation. None of this lets anyone sell lunar ground. Our Outer Space Treaty explainer walks through each article and law.
What the moon land sellers send you
Several companies sell acres of the Moon. Here is what four of them say about themselves on their own sites, checked on 4 October 2026.
- Lunar Embassy. Founded by Dennis Hope, who says he filed a claim to the Moon in 1980 and wrote to the United Nations about it. The company says it has sold lunar land since 1980. One acre is listed at $34.99 and comes as three printed documents on 11 x 14 inch paper: a lunar deed, a map and a set of "codes, covenants and restrictions." A PDF version costs $10 more. Its FAQ argues that the treaty binds governments, not individuals.
- Lunar Registry. Describes itself as the International Lunar Lands Registry, created in 1999, and prices plots by location.
- Buy Planets. Sells 100-acre plots on the Moon, Mars or Venus for $59.90, with a certificate showing the plot's coordinates and an overview map.
- MoonRegister. Sells 2 acres for 14.99 and 10 acres for 29.99 (euros were shown when we checked), delivered as a PDF certificate, a Moon map and a photo book.
Many of these sellers call their certificates novelty items or gifts, and selling a novelty certificate is legal. The sellers' legal argument is that Article II mentions only nations, so individuals are free to claim. The mainstream reading runs through Article VI: a private claim means nothing unless some country recognizes it, and a country that recognized it would be doing what Article II forbids. We know of no court that has recognized a purchased lunar acre as property, and with no government able to record title on the Moon, none can today. Our side-by-side comparison of moon land sellers has more detail.
Is buying land on the Moon a scam?
It depends on what you are told. A certificate sold plainly as a keepsake is a legal gift, and plenty of people enjoy them. The trouble starts when a page tells you that you "own" acreage, or hints that the paper will be worth money later. Before you buy from anyone, including us, ask these questions:
- Does the seller say clearly that this is not title to land?
- Is the parcel located with coordinates on a published map frame, and can anyone else buy the same ground?
- Is there a public record you could show someone?
- What arrives, in what format, and how long does it take?
- Does the page talk about resale, future value or "getting in early"? If it does, keep your money.
- Is there a written refund policy?
What an acre of the Moon costs
| Seller | Listed price | What you get | Format |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lunar Embassy | $34.99 per acre | Three printed documents; name printing $2.50 extra | Mailed; PDF $10 extra |
| Buy Planets | $59.90 per 100-acre plot | Certificate with coordinates, overview map | Certificate and map |
| MoonRegister | €14.99 for 2 acres, €29.99 for 10 | Certificate, Moon map, photo book | |
| Red Homestead | $39 per parcel claim | Surveyed parcel of 160, 640 or 2,560 acres; 19-document claim file; public registry entry; 24-month public notice; certificate to frame; 12 months of Claim Protection | PDF by email; printed file $50 extra |
What Red Homestead sells instead
Red Homestead sells a documented good-faith claim to one specific parcel, run like the paperwork of a frontier land claim. This is how it works:
- You pick the ground. The claim explorer shows NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mosaic of the whole Moon. Click anywhere and the parcel is drawn with corner coordinates on the Moon's Mean Earth/Polar Axis reference frame, an acreage and a Parcel ID.
- One parcel, one claimant. The explorer blocks claims that overlap an existing one.
- Public notice. Your claim is published for 24 months. Anyone may contest it, and a contest is settled by one published rule: the earlier valid filing wins.
- The claim file. You receive 19 documents by email, modeled on US homestead and mining-claim paperwork: survey, declaration of good faith, public notice, beneficial-use plan and a continuity ledger. See all 19.
- Your name on the roll, if you want it. The public registry roll lists every filed claim. Names appear only when the claimant opts in.
Why keep records if they are not title? Because on past frontiers, settlers who documented their possession before any land office existed were sometimes recognized once one arrived. That is how US homesteads and mining claims began. We can't promise it will happen on the Moon, and we never say it will. How a claim works covers the six steps, and our history of how land titles began covers the precedent.
Where on the Moon people pick
Most claimants choose one of two kinds of ground.
The south pole
Craters near the lunar south pole, such as Shackleton and Haworth, never see sunlight on their floors, and orbiters have found signs of water ice there. Water is why NASA's Artemis landing candidates and China's Chang'e-7 lander all point at the south pole. The explorer's "Shackleton (Moon)" button jumps straight there.
The near-side seas
The dark patches you see from your backyard are old lava plains, the maria. Mare Imbrium, Mare Serenitatis and Mare Tranquillitatis are easy to find with the naked eye, which makes a claim there easy to point at on a clear night.