Townships and sections on the Moon, Mars and every world we land on.
Like the Public Land Survey System, each plat starts from an initial point: a monument you can see and measure on the surface. On the Moon it is the Apollo 11 laser reflector, ranged from Earth to millimetres; on Mars, the crater Airy-0 and the Viking 1 lander. Every section, and every layer above and below it, has its own UPN.
Zoom in to see townships (6 miles square) and sections (a square mile). Click a spot for its section, its UPN and the layers of its rights. Calibrate: click the feature you see in the photo nearest the initial point to measure how far the photo is off.
How a plat is laid out
- Initial point. A feature that can be seen and measured on the surface, with its position in the world’s official frame and its accuracy.
- Principal meridian and base parallel run through it. Townships 6 miles square are counted north and south (tiers) and east and west (ranges), re-measured every four tiers on a correction parallel, as in the PLSS.
- Sections, a mile square, are numbered 1 to 36 from the north-east corner, back and forth. Near the poles a square grid of the same townships is laid around the pole.
- No initial point yet? The first robot that lands and claims a site sets one: its tracked position becomes the origin.
From landing to deed
- Land a robot in a section and keep it working there.
- Log its presence, signed, so it can’t be faked: the evidence of possession (telepossession).
- The claim moves through stages: filed, maintained, approved, recognized (or lapsed, contested).
- Deeds are issued from the plat on telepossess.com: a resource right, not a national land title, as the Outer Space Treaty requires.
Space plats
Space that is not above one parcel is platted in shells, sectors and bands. Cislunar plats turn with the Moon and are calibrated by lunar laser ranging to the Apollo reflectors; interplanetary plats sit in the Sun-centred frame fixed by distant quasars.