Moony-Eyed

moderates our planet's movements on its axis. And it's right for the taking. At least that's what people have been saying for decades. The Moon doesn't just represent one small step from man, nor one giant leap for mankind. It represents a new frontier, entirely real estate in space. Back in nineteen sixty seven, over one hundred nations signed a document known as the Outer Space Treaty, which basically outlined the rules by which every country should explore and inhabit

outer space. There were a number of principles, including one that stated outer space shall be free for exploration and use by all states as well as the Moon and other celestial bodies shall be used exclusively for peaceful purposes. But one year earlier, a different governing body took it upon themselves to draft its own document, one stating that its people owned the Moon. It was called the Declaration of Lunar Ownership, and it was signed by thirty five

citizens from the town of Geneva, Ohio. The declaration gave the people of Geneva and I quote, full possession and complete responsibility of the Moon, at least according to them, And although everyone elsewhere was free to enjoy the moonlight given off by the celestial body, Geneva was not responsible for any issues incurred by people who moon bathed a

little too much. But the document had another component, one that allowed the town to sell off one hundred plots of land on the Moon's surface for one hundred dollars a pop. And yet, the people of Geneva weren't the only ones who would come up with the idea to sell land on the Moon. About fourteen years earlier, a man named Dennis Hope figured it out on his own. Hope was a car salesman and a ventriloquist, and he

had hit a rough patch in his life. He and his wife were getting divorced, and he'd been living paycheck to paycheck. Mister Hope was well losing hope until one day when he was driving down the road and looked out the window toward the sky, and there it was all that lunar land ripe for the taking. He did a little digging at the local college library and found the Outer Space Treaty from the mid sixties. As he

read through the document, he noticed something. Even though the treaties stated that no nation could declare ownership over the Moon, there was nothing in there that said a person couldn't

own it. Hope, believing that he had found a loophole, filed the claim with his local county seat for the whole of the Moon's surface, along with the surfaces of every other planet in the Solar System except for the Earth and the Sun. Nobody, of course, took him seriously, but after consulting with three supervisors across two separate floors in five hours, he finally got what he wanted, ownership

over the Moon and the planets. He then wrote to the General Assembly of the United Nations as well as the Russian government, letting them know that there was a new sheriff in town, and that if anyone wanted to sell land in space, they had to go through him first. For those wondering, hope will sell anyone an acre of moonland for about thirty five dollars. But Dennis and the people of Ohio were not alone in believing the Moon was up for grabs. Others had been declaring ownership of

it for years before Geneva. There was a science fiction fan club in Berkeley, California, that had laid claim to part of the Moon in nineteen fifty two. That same year, the chairman of the Hayden Planetarium in New York planned on selling parcels of land there for a dollar an acre, And in nineteen fifty four, a Chilean lawyer named Gennaro Gerada Veda published three separate announcements of his claim of

the Mood on the Official Diary of Chile. Even President Richard Nixon acknowledged Veda's ownership, sending him a telegram via the US embassy in nineteen sixty nine. Nixon requested permission for his astronauts to land there. It doesn't matter how far away it is or how expensive it is to go there. For every person who gazes at the night sky and sees the enormity of the universe, there will always be someone who looks up and wonders, how much could I get for that? And now for something a

bit lighter. Every day the world continues to plunge deeper into darkness due to war, climate change, famine and other cateshts, fees, And meanwhile, scholars, leaders and CEOs with too much money having dreaming up ways to save humanity or at least themselves. Some of their plans involve inhabiting other planets. Others believe building big underground bunkers with their own ecosystems is the way to go. But one man had another idea. It just wasn't exactly feasible. Yet you could say he had

his head in the clouds. His name was Richard Buckminster Fuller, the architect who made the Geodesic Dome popular. If you've ever walked around Epcot at Disney World, you've undoubtedly seen the giant golf ball shape sphere known as spaceship Earth, a phrase that he also coined. Born in eighteen ninety five, Fuller attended Harvard for a short time before he was

expelled for missing his exams and partying too much. He then traveled to Canada, where he took a job at a mill until re enrolling at Harvard again in nineteen fifteen, but that didn't last long either. He was soon expelled once again, ultimately joining the U the US Navy to serve during World War One. In fact, Fuller didn't get into architecture until the nineteen twenties, when he started working on the Stockade Building System with his father in law.

This was a construction system made using bricks of compressed wood shavings with large vertical holes drilled down their centers. The holes would then be filled with concrete so that these stacked blocks couldn't move. After that company failed, though, Fuller contemplated ending his life in nineteen twenty seven. That is until he experienced a life changing event that turned

everything around for him. He felt as though a ball of white light surrounded him and lifted him into the air, and then a voice spoke telling him, you do not have the right to eliminate yourself. You do not belong to you. You belong to the universe. Fuller was transformed by the experience and got back to work trying to

improve humanity by revolutionizing housing. He designed the Dimaxian house, which was an inexpensive home that could be produced at scale and dropped into place on a plot of the land. There was also the geodesic dome, which came about in nineteen fifty one. The dome was cheap, resilient, and easy to assemble, making it ideal for housing, especially in lower income areas and harsh climates, and that design led to another creation, one that had the potential to change housing

all over the world. Japanese media mogul Matsutaro Shoriki had challenged Fuller to create a community to accommodate Japan's growing population. To do this, the houses would be required to float on Tokyo Bay, linked together like a giant city, and what Fuller came up with definitely did float, but not on the bay. His homes were designed to rise into the air like balloons instead. He called them spherical Tensegrity

Atmospheric Research Stations, or stars for short. They were also known as cloud nines and were giant geodesic spheres filled with air. Each dome was intended to be a half mile in diameter, yet only way a fraction of the weight of the air inside. Using a sustainable heat source like solar energy or human movement inside, the one degree fahrenheit increase of the internal temperature could cause the dome

to float. If a person wanted to remain in one spot, they could tether their massive sphere to a mountain or another anchor. Or if they wanted to travel the world, they could drift freely throughout the sky. But Fuller didn't just picture them as houses. He also anticipated using them as impromptu emergency relief sites during disasters. Unfortunately, his dream remained just that a dream. The technology didn't exist at the time to make these cloud nines a reality. Fuller

himself believed that they wouldn't be feasible for another fifty years. Well, that time has come and gone, and we're no closer to living in floating spheres now than we were back then. But if floods, wildfires, and heat waves continue to pummel the planet, then we may be forced to find new ways to live. And right now, a geodesic balloon doesn't sound half bad. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour

of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. This show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show and you can learn all about it over at the Worldoflore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.