This is CBS, I Am the World, I'm John Bachelor.

Hotel Mars, Episode N. David Livingston, Dr. Space himself is here as my colleague and

co-host and friend, and we're off on an adventure thanks to a new book that I'm very much

looking forward to reading and discussing with the author.

Off Earth ethical questions and quandaries for living in outer space.

Erica, Nesville is the author MIT Press.

Erica, congratulations in good evening and before we go exploring on the moon and Mars,

what is your ambition in your new book?

What vision did you have when you set down to write?

Thank you very much.

Good evening to you, Erica, and congratulations.

Thank you, and thank you for having me.

Well, I have to admit, when I wrote this book, my initial and primary motivation was just

to learn more about the subject myself.

I was inspired to think about the ethics and human rights challenges of space settlement

because I was interested in space settlement.

I'm an astronomer myself.

I love space, but I recognize I didn't have the kind of training and expertise to answer

all these big questions.

And so in researching for the book, I had the opportunity to talk to a lot of those experts.

And so that was my primary motivation, and then the more I learned and the more of these

fascinating conversations I had, the more I learned.

...