PRESS RELEASE: Wasser's Space Settlement Initiative Included as Full Chapter in "Return to the Moon"

Return to the MoonThe Space Settlement Initiative, a description of how lunar land claims recognition could help finance permanent settlements on the Moon, Mars, and beyond, has been included as a chapter in the book "Return to the Moon," edited by Rick Tumlinson.

Tumlinson has been acquainted with Wasser's land claims recognition proposal for quite some time, as the introduction to the book chapter indicates:

"Alan Wasser was one of the first people I met when I began to be active in the space settlement community. For years he has been a stalwart proponent of human commmunities on the Moon, and was the first person to propose that such a settlement might be located on or near a permanently lit mountaintop on the Moon's south pole. (He was given credit for this in Ben Bova's book "Moonrise" in which the mountain is named Mount Wasser.)

"Alan has also been pushing the idea of lunar property rights for over a decade. He and many others belief that if handled with care, the key to opening space to humanity will be the right of individuals to own their own land - something we take for granted in free societies here on Earth, but which, for reasons he outlines in the following pages is almost seen as heretical by some when it comes to space.

"To many in the space movement, including myself, the real insanity is to not understand just how small a speck of land Earth itself represents when compared to the rest of the universe, and based on this near-sighted hubris to proclaim we should not go to and live on other "lands" in space - as if this were all there is and ever shall be. This is especially true since places like the Moon are dead rock, not being taken from anyone, and will be given to future generations as their new homes."

"Return to the Moon" can be purchased at bookstores such as Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/Return-Moon-Apogee-Books-Space/dp/1894959329

Note: Neither the Space Settlement Institute nor Mr. Wasser receive any proceeds from the sale of this work.

Every revolutionary idea passes three stages:
  1. It's impossible.
  2. It's possible but not worth doing.
  3. I said it was a good idea all along.
- Arthur C. Clarke
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