OrbDev Appeals To State Dept For Eros Rent Ruling (Company claims asteroid)

Orbital Development, in the course of its Eros Project, has claimed and owns Asteroid 433 Eros since 03 March, 2000. On 12 February, 2001 the United States landed the NEAR-Shoemaker spacecraft on the privately owned planetoid, prompting OrbDev to send an invoice to NASA for parking & storage fees totaling $20.00 for one hundred years storage. After a lengthy exchange of letters with NASA’s chief lawyer, its General Counsel, NASA refused to pay OrbDev’s invoice.

On 13 Feb 03, OrbDev sent an official and legal Notice to the United States Department of State stating that NASA had exceeded it authority in this matter and the Department of State should clarify the United States’ Executive Branch position on the critical issue of individual property rights in Space.

In a letter dated 15 Aug 03, Ralph L. Braibanti, the Director of Space and Advanced Technology in the Department of State’s Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, wrote, "We have reviewed the "Notice" dated February 13, 2003, that you sent to the U.S. Department of State. In the view of the Department, private ownership of an asteroid is precluded by Article II of the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies. Accordingly, we have concluded that your claim is without legal basis."

Orbital Development continues to dispute this controversial conclusion by the Department of State and will file suit in Federal court for a definitive decision that will be binding on the U.S. government.

OrbDev’s President, Gregory Nemitz, stated, "America’s Founders valued individual property rights second only to freedom of religion. This U.S. Department of State opinion is at odds with the Bill of Rights’ Ninth and Tenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States of America.

OrbDev question's the government's ability to abrogate any individual’s inalienable rights via international treaties and believes that the U.S. government has no Constitutional authority to abridge an American individual’s inalienable Rights; thus the treaty Mr. Braibanti refers to can only restrict States which are a party to that treaty, and cannot restrict an American Citizen who is rightfully acting as sovereign."

OrbDev maintains that official recognition of property rights to natural objects in space is the key issue for opening the space frontier to development and the extraction of the nearly unlimited resources which are available in Space.

Wait a Minute! Wait a Minute!

The real problem is that rogue company that is selling my Moon on the Internet for 29.99 per acre!

I properly documented my claim in the claims office in Atlantis and demand that my property rights be respected!

Does anyone remember the 50s TV show that offered 1 square inch of land in the Yukon through a cereal box withan inserted deed. Here's the skinny from Amazon:

From the time "The Challenge of the Yukon" began in 1947, kids all over the country rushed home from school to listen to the radio program about a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer who kept law and order in the territory with the help of his dog Yukon King and horse Rex. The hero was so popular that in 1953 the program was renamed "Sergeant Preston of the Yukon."

Despite the popularity of the program, however, television chipped away at radio audiences in the '50s. At the same time, sales declined of the sponsoring Quaker Oats Puffed Wheat and Puffed Rice cereals, victims of innovative new cereals and compelling advertising gimmicks - like toys in cereal boxes.

Then an advertising executive for Quaker dreamed up the idea of giving away land in the Yukon. Quaker Oats paid $1,000 for 19.11 acres of Yukon land near Dawson, divided the land into square inches and printed 21 million "deeds" to the land bits. In January 1955, the deeds were packaged in 21 million boxes of Quaker Puffed Wheat and Puffed Rice, both to encourage sales and to publicize the show's transition from radio to television.

A 1980 New York Times article by Andrew H. Malcolm claimed the idea turned into one of the most successful sales promotions in North American business history. Consumers snatched up all 21 million boxes within a couple of weeks. It was so successful that a follow-up promotion offered 1-ounce "Pokes" of Yukon river sand for 25 cents, according to an article from the Yukon News.

It would have been next to impossible to register 21 million separate deeds, so on advice of counsel, Quaker Oats set up an Illinois corporation - the Klondike Big Inch Land Co. - as the registered owner. A spokeswoman for Quaker Oats said nobody seems to know the exact sequence of events, but the company failed to make provision for paying taxes on the property and subsequently went out of business. The Canadian government seized the land in 1965 for an outstanding $37.20 tax bill.

In spite of the deed promotion, the television show was short-lived. The radio show that sparked children's imaginations for eight years failed on television after a couple of years perhaps because images couldn't replace imagery. Sgt. Preston rode into his last 24-hour Yukon day in 1957.

But Quaker Oats, the Yukon Lands Branch and the Yukon Department of Commerce still get calls and letters from people asking what happened to their little piece of the Yukon.

Thirty-eight years ago, Irving, you and 20,999,999 other kids pulled a little bit of magic out of those cereal boxes. That's yours forever, but you don't own the land.

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