# Could a private co. turn the Moon into billboard? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 7, 2001, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-private-co-turn-the-moon-into-billboard/61137 "2001-04-07T06:41:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![FEotU](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b9bd4f/32.png) [@FEotU](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FEotU)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2001, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-private-co-turn-the-moon-into-billboard/61137/1 "2001-04-07T06:41:31Z")
Out of curiosity, does anyone out there know of any international treaty (that would be binding against an individual or company, not a nation) that would prevent someone with the money (Bill Gates or Coca Cola, for example) from turning the surface of the Moon into a billboard we couldn’t ignore? ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2001, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-private-co-turn-the-moon-into-billboard/61137/2 "2001-04-07T07:06:55Z")
A text of the treaty is here [Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies](http://www.marssociety.org/law_and_governance/moon.asp). The treaty was written with nuke-happy governments in mind, but it can be stretched to forbid a lunar billboard. For example: > [@](#): > > Article 7 > > 1. In exploring and using the moon, States Parties shall take measures to prevent the disruption of the existing balance of its environment, whether by introducing adverse changes in that environment, by its harmful contamination through the introduction of extra-environmental matter or otherwise. States Parties shall also take measures to avoid harmfully affecting the environment of the earth through the introduction of extraterrestrial matter or otherwise. I would say that making the sunside of the moon a billboard would be disruptive, wouldn’t you? And (this is the killer): > [@](#): > > Article 11 > > 1. Neither the surface nor the subsurface of the moon, nor any part thereof or natural resources in place, shall become property of any State, international intergovernmental or non-governmental organization, national organization or non-governmental entity or of any natural person. The placement of personnel, space vehicles, equipment, facilities, stations and installations on or below the surface of the moon, including structures connected with its surface or subsurface, shall not create a right of ownership over the surface or the subsurface of the moon or any areas thereof. The foregoing provisions are without prejudice to the international regime referred to in paragraph 5 of this article. I like where it says “or of any natural person.” It means that Bill Gates XIV can’t buy up the moon. So the 1979 treaty, unless it was revised in 1989 (Article 18 provides for revision ten years after the treaty becomes law), would prevent such a nefarious scheme. I’m digging into obscure contract law at 0100 on a Saturday morning. And I’m enjoying it. No, I don’t have a life. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2001, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-private-co-turn-the-moon-into-billboard/61137/3 "2001-04-07T07:08:44Z")
Before you jump on me, treaties are contracts among nations. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2001, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-private-co-turn-the-moon-into-billboard/61137/4 "2001-04-07T07:13:22Z")
If Galactus comes along and wants to write his name on the moon, I don’t plan on stopping him. I could only hope that the Silver Surfer might be loitering nearby so he could fly up there and talk some sense into the big guy. ---
**Author:** ![FEotU](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b9bd4f/32.png) [@FEotU](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FEotU)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2001, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-private-co-turn-the-moon-into-billboard/61137/5 "2001-04-07T07:25:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Derleth \* > \*\*Before you jump on me, treaties are contracts among nations. \*\* OK, but did every nation on Earth agree to that treaty? ---
**Author:** ![Chas.E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e99b99/32.png) [@Chas.E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chas.E)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2001, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-private-co-turn-the-moon-into-billboard/61137/6 "2001-04-07T07:40:54Z")
I think the bigger question is economic and technological. Why would anyone spend billions of bucks putting up an advertisement that is about the size of a dime held at arm’s length? I vaguely recall reading some SF story where they worked out the details of writing on the moon. They proposed spraying powdered carbon-black on the surface. But there’s not enough room to write “Coke” on the moon at a size everyone can see, so they just write “C” and tell everyone it stands for Coca-Cola. But my favorite story was a 2000AD comic called “The Loonies.” An ad agency uses lasers to project ads on the moon. A cult of Luna takes offense and storms the projection building and starts killing the advertising people. Then Judge Dredd comes in and kills everyone. At the end, he is the only one left alive, so he puts a final message up on the moon, “out of service.” Ah, well, it’s just a comic. ---
**Author:** ![Cabbage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@Cabbage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabbage)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2001, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-private-co-turn-the-moon-into-billboard/61137/7 "2001-04-07T07:52:05Z")
A few years ago Pizza Hut had the idea of projecting their image as an advertisement on the moon. They abandoned it once they discovered it would have to be the size of Texas, and put their logo on a rocket instead. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2001, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-private-co-turn-the-moon-into-billboard/61137/8 "2001-04-07T08:05:14Z")
I believe the story you are thinking of is: “The Man Who Sold the Moon” by Robert A. Heinlein. In the story, he proposes two possibilities: A company would help finance a trip to the moon and would get the advertising rights to the surface. It’s not really so farfetched. Expensive, true, but think of the exposure! The other idea is that a government would use it for propaganda purposes. The story was written in the 50’s, and a hammer + sickle (spelling?) fit on there quite nicely. ---
**Author:** ![Chas.E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e99b99/32.png) [@Chas.E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chas.E)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2001, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-private-co-turn-the-moon-into-billboard/61137/9 "2001-04-07T08:23:52Z")
Yeah, Heinlein sounds right. I must’ve misremembered the sickle as a C. I probably read that story when I was about 7 years old. ---
**Author:** ![Zarathustra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/898d66/32.png) [@Zarathustra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zarathustra)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2001, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-private-co-turn-the-moon-into-billboard/61137/10 "2001-04-07T13:13:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Derleth \* > \*\*I like where it says “or of any natural person.” \*\* I think that’s as opposed to a “fictitious person”, i.e., a corporation. But maybe you knew that. ---
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2001, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-private-co-turn-the-moon-into-billboard/61137/11 "2001-04-07T13:45:55Z")
I think any company considering it would also have to consider the backlash. A lot of people would be extremely pissed if the Moon was emblazoned for all time with a corporate logo. The promotion would probably backfire. ---
**Author:** ![Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2001, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-private-co-turn-the-moon-into-billboard/61137/12 "2001-04-07T14:48:16Z")
It was both a “C” graphic (as proposed to the cola outfit) and a hammer-and-sickle (as used to alarm possible military sponsors). In both cases, the main character (why the ^%#^ can’t I remember his name?) demonstrated his proposal with a button on his lapel that was the exact size of the moon in the night sky, to make a point about how legible simple graphics would be. ---
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2001, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-private-co-turn-the-moon-into-billboard/61137/13 "2001-04-07T18:58:58Z")
[Movie Announcer Voice]D. D. Harriman **is** _The Man Who Sold the Moon_.[/MAV] (Can I invoke Fernis’ Law? It’s not a sci fi . . . _crap_, I mean _SF_ thread, but it involves an SF idea. . .) ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_Bowe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@Doug\_Bowe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_Bowe)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2001, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-private-co-turn-the-moon-into-billboard/61137/14 "2001-04-07T19:54:27Z")
Okay, Apollos 11, 14 and 15 (and the Soviet Union’s Lunakhod 2) put retroreflectors on the moon ment to be illuminated by laser from earth. Experiments performed at McDonald Obsevatory (near Fort Davis, TX) helped establish moon orbit and recession from the earth. If I remember, a pinpoint laser from earth ended up illuminating something like seven (7) kilometers of moon and reflected back around twenty (20) kilometers to earth. To light up the whole moon into a Coca-Cola bottlecap sounds prohibitively expensive. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2001, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-private-co-turn-the-moon-into-billboard/61137/15 "2001-04-07T20:10:43Z")
**Derleth** , I’m not sure that that treaty is actually relevant here. It would prohibit a governmental agency from billboarding the Moon, and it prohibits anyone, government or no, from claiming the Moon, but it makes it pretty clear that a private company could, for instance, establish a colony on the Moon without claiming ownership of the real estate. Perhaps a private company could similarly decorate the surface without claiming it? As for the SF angle, the corporate logo on Harriman’s button was “6+”, not a C, which I always interpreted as a names-changed-to-protect-against-lawsuits rendition of 7Up. And what’s **Fenris** ’ Law? ---
**Author:** ![Stephen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/96bed5/32.png) [@Stephen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephen)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2001, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-private-co-turn-the-moon-into-billboard/61137/16 "2001-04-07T20:26:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Chronos \* > \*\* > As for the SF angle, the corporate logo on Harriman’s button was “6+”, not a C, which I always interpreted as a names-changed-to-protect-against-lawsuits rendition of 7Up. \*\* Speaking of which, is it just coincidence that the three letters in HAL (of 2001 fame) become IBM when you decrement them by one letter? ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2001, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-private-co-turn-the-moon-into-billboard/61137/17 "2001-04-07T20:44:14Z")
What **is** Fenris’ Law? I ran a couple of web searches but could only find some pages about towns named Fenris, Fenris Caves, castles named Fenris, etc. ---
**Author:** ![FEotU](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b9bd4f/32.png) [@FEotU](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FEotU)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2001, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-private-co-turn-the-moon-into-billboard/61137/18 "2001-04-07T22:12:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Doug Bowe \* > \*\* Okay, Apollos 11, 14 and 15 (and the Soviet Union’s Lunakhod 2) put retroreflectors on the moon ment to be illuminated by laser from earth. > Experiments performed at McDonald Obsevatory (near Fort Davis, TX) helped establish moon orbit and recession from the earth. > If I remember, a pinpoint laser from earth ended up illuminating something like seven (7) kilometers of moon and reflected back around twenty (20) kilometers to earth. > To light up the whole moon into a Coca-Cola bottlecap sounds prohibitively expensive. \*\* I wasn’t suggesting we should worry about the possibility, I only wondered if there was a tool in place to prevent it. I’m not aware of any treaty or pact that every nation on Earth agreed to. As I interpret contract law (simplified), anything not prohibited is permitted. ---
**Author:** ![Cabbage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@Cabbage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabbage)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2001, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-private-co-turn-the-moon-into-billboard/61137/19 "2001-04-07T22:45:35Z")
> [@](#): > > Speaking of which, is it just coincidence that the three letters in HAL (of 2001 fame) become IBM when you decrement them by one letter? According to Kubrick and Clarke it was coincidence; in fact, they said that if they had realized that connection before hand, they would have changed the name. ---
**Author:** ![Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2001, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-private-co-turn-the-moon-into-billboard/61137/20 "2001-04-07T23:42:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Chronos \* > As for the SF angle, the corporate logo on Harriman’s button was “6+”, not a C, which I always interpreted as a names-changed-to-protect-against-lawsuits rendition of 7Up. And what’s **Fenris** ’ Law? \*\* Crap. This is what I get for not having read the thing since, like, 1982 or thereabouts. Oh, and WTF _is_ Fenris’ Law, anyway? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-private-co-turn-the-moon-into-billboard/61137.md?page=2)