jane wells caught up with robert bigelow looking to be the man on the moon. jane?rter: this is beyond space. private property rights have been difficult enough to establish on earth. imagine trying to do it on the moon. bigelow aerospace founded by robert bigelow, they make inflatable space habitats. elon musk's spacex is going to take one to the space station in 2015. now he's suggesting the we private companies can do more for less beyond earth orbit. and applying to amend 1976 international treaty on the moon allowing private property rights, hoping to motivate u.s. companies to get u.s. back to moon and guarantee rights of discovery by people who put up money by rights to explore. >> the big fear here isn't fear of private enterprise. owning and maximizing profitable benefit from the moon. the big worry is that america is asleep and does nothing. while china comes along, lands people on the moon and decides, we might as well start surveying and laying claim because who is going to stop us? >> reporter: china is preparing to launch its first lunar rover. bhi ask

details ahead with a re rare interview with robert bigelow ahead on the "closing bell." kin. rate. really makes my life easier. maybe a promotion is in order. good news. i got a new title. and a raise? management couldn't make that happen. [ male announcer ] introducing fedex one rate. simple, flat rate shipping with the reliability of fedex. a confident retirement. those dreams, there's just no way we're going to let them die. ♪ like they helped millions of others. by listening. planning. working one on one. that's what ameriprise financial does. that's what they can do with you. that's how ameriprise puts more within reach. ♪ that's how ameriprise puts more within reach. in a we believe outshining the competition tomorrow requires challenging your business inside and out today. at cognizant, we help forward-looking companies run better and run different - to give your customers every reason to keep looking for you. so if you're ready to see opportunities and see them through, we say: let's get to work. because the future belongs to those who challenge the present. >>> welco

but that space company, boss robert bigelow says the agreement does not prevent private companies fromof the moon, so he wants to stake his claim. analysts say this could spark a huge fight with china. they plan to launch a mission to the moon in march. michael gold is joining us from washington, the director of d.c. operations and business growth at bigelow aero space. nice to see you. >> how are you. >> i'm good. there's more than cheese there. what do you hope to do? >> there's a lot of things more valuable than cheese on the map, and we hope to open up the moon to private sector investment for the ben benefit of nasa and get america engaged and on the move again and get us on the moon to develop that for benefits on earth. >> china is going stan -- stand in your way, i'm guessing. >> china is a very interesting situation. they're going to have a rover on the moon next month. they already conduct more space launches than we do per year. and china can launch their people into space and we can't. really what more can you say than that? i think that speaks volumes. >> one thing you're