The Amusing Story of the 3 “Martians” Who Sued NASA
Three Yemenis sued the space agency NASA in 1997 for trespassing on Mars saying they inherited it 3,000 years ago.
Mars, the Final Frontier
In 1997, NASA scientists did something incredible that changed the history of space exploration.
For the first time, they used a small wheeled robot called a sojourner to study the surface of Mars. The sojourner was no bigger than a microwave oven, but it went on to share a lot of valuable information to scientists that gave a whole new perspective to the way we viewed planet Mars in general.
As the sojourner drove over the surface of Mars, it used its camera to send pictures of the Martian landscape. It sent back more than 1000 pictures of the Red Planet. It used instruments to study what the nearby Martian rocks and dirt were made of. Its lander also collected information about winds and other weather factors on Mars.
From Earth, Mars looks cold, dry, and rocky. But Sojourner's photos and information told a much different story. We learned that a long time ago, Mars used to be a warmer and wetter place. The mission finally concluded with a final transmission on Sept. 27, 1997, with the sojourner outliving its expected life.
NASA's mission was a resounding success, and needless to say, it became the icebreaker, the de facto standard for all subsequent missions to the red planet. The sojourner was immortalized in the blockbuster hit ‘The Martian,’ when astronaut Mark Watney (played by Matt Damon) digs up the old spacecraft to establish communications between his location on Mars and NASA personnel back on Earth.
But along with the bouquets, NASA also gets embroiled in a bizarre lawsuit, something its scientists would never have imagined in their wildest dreams. Three Yemenis filed the lawsuit claiming the red planet was theirs, and NASA was exploring it without authorization or proper consent from its rightful landowners.
NASA Gets Sued for Unauthorized Invasion
The bizarre events unfolded after NASA’s sojourner landed on Mars to a thundering ovation from the world community. After the claps came the lawsuit.
Three Yemeni men – Adam Ismail, Mustafa Khalil, and Abdullah al-Umari, filed a lawsuit with the Yemeni Prosecutor, General, against NASA. According to the trio, they are direct descendants of the rightful owners of the red planet.
Most importantly, the three insisted their lineage goes back to 3000 years which was enough to claim ownership and file a complaint arguing that Mars is actually their home.
As the “wronged” men told the Arabic-language weekly newspaper Al-Thawri after filing the lawsuit.
“Sojourner and Pathfinder, which are owned by the United States government, landed on Mars and began exploring it without informing us or seeking our approval. We inherited the planet from our ancestors 3,000 years ago,”
And interestingly, they allegedly had “evidence” to support their claim.
The Men Made Bizarre Claims
According to the men, they belonged to the lineage of the ancient Sabaean and Himyaritic civilizations that existed on Mars for more than 3000 years.
Their rich ancestry, they claimed, preceded several millennia before the age of Christ and the Roman Civilization. Their ancestors instructed humans to go and settle on Earth and make it ‘prosperous’ with their wisdom.
The trio demanded the immediate suspension of NASA’s Martian operations and an information blackout on data collected about the Martian atmosphere, gravity, and surface.
NASA was not amused. As Brian Welch, the then NASA director of Media Services, told CNN,
“It’s a ridiculous claim. Mars is a planet out in the solar system that is the property of all humanity, not two or three guys in Yemen.”
Richard Cook, the Pathfinder mission manager at NASA, also agreed.
"It's everybody's. Mars is for the whole world to explore and to understand. Just because we land on Mars first doesn't mean the United States owns it.”
Of course, the three men from Yemen were unhappy with the “attitude” shown by NASA. They were hell-bent on ensuring that no “trespasser” roams around their “private” estate, revealing crucial information to the public.
They persisted with the bizarre lawsuit despite being advised by sane minds to stop their madness.
The Petition Was Dismissed
Needless to say, their petition was rejected. The chief prosecutor — the only official to see the “supporting evidence” even threatened the trio with jail for wasting official time.
While NASA laughed off the lawsuit, the three men did not show the slightest remorse. In fact, they used to petition to convince gullible investors to purchase land on Mars at the best price possible; two dollars per square meter.
We don’t know their real motives, but it is highly unlikely that customers who would have opted to buy that “piece of land” on Mars would have even gotten a proper legal property deed validating their innovative purchase.
And if, at all, the trio did manage the deals “real” somehow, NASA would have its hands full fighting the influx of claims that can be expected in the future, following its ‘misadventure’ (read audacity) of having trespassed Mars.