‘I own Mars’ says doctor on a mission to stop World War III in SPACE

A British doctor has launched an extraordinary bid to stop World War III erupting in space by claiming ownership of Mars.

Dr Phillip Davies, a 49-year-old from Hampshire, is terrified that individual nations could soon tear up the Cold War-era 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which prevents countries from stationing nukes or other weapons of mass destruction in space.

He wants to force the UN to draw up tough new laws to guard against the militarisation for space and thinks the best way to do this is by declaring “possession” of the Red Planet.

Using international laws which allow people to claim ownership of land that’s barren or difficult to settle, he is preparing to bring his case to The Hague and is already .

“I am making a claim to Mars to get people talking about inadequate space laws,” he told The Sun Online.

“If a war starts in space, it will spread to Earth. We need to make sure there no weapons up there, particularly weapons of mass destruction.”

The doctor’s fears have been stoked by a recent comment from a Chinese official, who Davies quoted as saying “the militarisation of space is a matter of historical certainty”.

Dr. Davies believes Beijing and its counterparts in Moscow are already looking to install weapons in orbit, a development which would almost certainly lead to an arms race in space.

“We hope that by making our claim, we our hoping to secure celestial safety for future generations,” the doctor said.

Currently, all countries abide the treaty, which forbids them putting nukes in space – but they can opt out of this with a year’s notice.

Last year, the United States passed an asteroid mining law which allows private firms to seize space rocks and harvest their contents.

This is actually forbidden under the 1967 treaty, which stop nations from claiming ownership of anything in space.

Once a company like SpaceX manages to snare its first billion dollar asteroid, Dr Phillip fears other companies and countries are likely to follow suit, effectively rendering the anti-nuke treaty totally worthless.

“My concern is that this great law which is strong on weapons but weak in other areas will be marginalised and devalued, simply because it’s bad for business,” he added.

The Doctor wants to force the UN to step in and reform its laws for an age where big corporations, rather than big countries, are involved in space exploration.

Over the past five years, the Doctor has been blasting lasers at the surface of Mars in a bid to release molecules of carbon dioxide from the soil.

Here on Earth, you can claim ownership of “barren and difficult to settle” land if you can prove you’re trying to improve it.

It has previously been suggested that unleashing the carbon dioxide locked away in the ice caps of Mars could help to make the planet more hospitable for humans. So by unleashing even the tiniest amount of gas, he feels he’s satisfying land law.

Now he wants the UN to recognise his right to “possession” of Mars and is selling off large parcels of land at £10 a time to fund his bid to take the case to the court of arbitration in The Hague.

So far, he’s found that most of buyer have been women looking for prezzies to give their man..

He continued: “What chance of we have of being granted possession of land on Mars? Small, you have to say at the moment.

“But we want to show the loopholes in the UN treaty by walking through those loopholes.”