Legal Controversy
In an experimental legal case, Eros was claimed as property by Gregory W. Nemitz of OrbDev. Nemitz argued that, according to the homestead principle, he had the right to claim ownership of any celestial body that he made use of; he claimed he had designated Eros a spacecraft parking facility and wished to charge NASA a parking and storage fee of twenty cents per year for NEAR Shoemaker. An expert in extraterrestrial real estate issues, Virgiliu Pop, responded by using the same novelty-deed registry Nemitz had used for Eros to claim ownership of the Sun, stating:
I, for one, intended this move only to show how ridiculous a property rights system in outer space would be if it were to be based solely on claim unsubstantiated by any actual possession. —Virgiliu PopNemitz's case was dismissed and an appeal denied.
Read more about this topic: 433 Eros
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