Interplanetary Liberty: Building Free Societies in the Cosmos

by Charles S. Cockell

On the Moon or Mars, where even the oxygen you breathe is made in a manufacturing process controlled by someone else, can you be free?

In Interplanetary Liberty: Building Free Societies in the Cosmos, Charles S. Cockell argues that beyond Earth, space is especially tyranny-prone. Yet rather than consign humanity to a dim future of extraterrestrial despotisms, he suggests that the construction of free societies is possible using uniquely blended and reformulated classical liberal ideas for the space frontier.

Considering politics, science, engineering, art, education, prisons, and other facets of society, this book lays out the general ethos and culture around which settlements might be constructed to secure the establishment and flourishing of freedom in the cosmos.

Genres: Politics, Space

464 pages, Hardcover

First published July 14, 2022

About the author

Charles Cockell is Professor of Astrobiology at the University of Edinburgh. His academic interests encompass life in extreme environments, the habitability of extraterrestrial environments and the human exploration and settlement of space. He has also written on the subject of extraterrestrial liberty.

He is author of scientific papers and books, including the undergraduate-level textbook 'Astrobiology' (Wiley) and numerous popular science books.