There are already claims being filed on the Moon and several other planets. Visit
http://www.moonshop.com/ and see for yourself. Or go directly to
www.lunarembassy.com for the legalese. Whether those claims will be honored is another question...
And as far as our future travel speed, those past advances were merely incremental. Even a modern jet airliner at ~600 mph is only about 200 times faster than a horse. The speed of light is 186,000 miles per
second not per hour. That's 670,000,000 mph! We've got a few more 'technological revolutions' to go through before worrying about that barrier. Worrying about it now is kinda like being concerned about the sound barrier when the steam locomotive was invented.
[ September 18, 2003, 18:09: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]